Sklar - Bio

Howard Sklar, PhD

Department of English

University of Helsinki

A little bit about me...

In 2008, I completed my PhD through the Department of English at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The title of my dissertation is The Art of Sympathy: Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion in Fiction. I have also contributed essays on the dynamics of reader sympathy to academic journals and essay collections (see c.v. link above). At the University of Helsinki, I currently teach “Fiction and the Emotions,” a course offered through the departments of English and Comparative Literature. During the spring of 2010, I will teach “Disability Studies and Literature” for the Department of Comparative Literature. I have also taught, in 2006 and 2009, “Fiction, Ethics and the Significance of Reading.” I recently edited a special issue of Helsinki English Studies, the electronic journal of the Department of English at the University of Helsinki, with the theme “Emotions: Implications for Literary, Linguistic, and Translation Studies.” That issue will appear during the autumn of 2009. For additional information about my research interests, please see my page on the Department of English website.

In addition to my university-related work, I teach English in the public schools of Espoo, Finland. I have been a secondary school English teacher, in the United States and in Finland, since 1987.

I live in Espoo with my wife and two teenage children.

I can be reached at howard.sklar@helsinki.fi.