Date Updated
4-1-2024
Department
English
Academic Rank
Professor Emerita
Year Retired from SJSU
2001 (FERP 2001-2004)
Educational Background
University of Maryland, College Park, 1960, BA, English (Minor, Chemistry)
University of California, San Diego, 1969, PhD, English Literature
Teaching Experience
Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Baltimore, 1959-1963
University of California, San Diego (teaching assistant), 1964-1969
San José State University, 1969-2004
Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning, 2008-2019
Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, 2010-present.
Administrative and Professional Experience
Dean, School of Humanities and the Arts, SJSU, 1980-86
Academic Vice President, SJSU, 1986-93
Selected Publications
Books:
Elizabeth of York. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/1/
Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen. Stroud, UK: Tempus Publishing, 2005.
Elizabeth: England’s Slandered Queen. Stroud, UK: Tempus Publishing, 2006. (paper). Reprint: The History Press,2009. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/3/
Scholarly Articles:
"The Rhetoric of Love: Voice in the Amoretti and the Songs and Sonets," Quarterly Journal of Speech 68 (1982), 37-46. Reprinted in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, ed. James E. Person, Jr., Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1987. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/4/
"In Defense of Cressida: Character as Metaphor," Women's Studies 7 (1980), 1-17. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/5/
"The Intellectual Folly of Dr. Faustus," Studies in Philology 74 (July 1977), 258-78. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/6/
"Dryden's Joke on the Courtiers: Marriage à la Mode," Seventeenth-Century News 34 (Spring 1976), 5-7.
"Forum: Spenser's Wanton Maidens," PMLA 88 (October 1973), 1185-86.
"Spenser's Wanton Maidens: Reader Psychology and the Bower of Bliss," PMLA 88 (January 1973), 62-68. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/9/
San Jose Studies, Founding Editor, 1975-80.
Professional Publications:
Update: The Newsletter of the California Council of Fine Arts Deans, Spring 1985; Fall 1985; Spring 1986.
"Report on the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast," PMLA 93 (1978), 578-9; PMLA 92 (1977), 599-600; PMLA 91 (1976), 534-35.
"PAPC News," April 1978; February 1978; April 1977; February 1977; April 1976; February 1976.
Program, Philological Association of the Pacific Coast.
- 1978, University of Washington.
- 1977, University of Southern California.
- 1976, University of Oregon.
Popular Articles:
“The Story of a Silicon Valley Start-Up: Beethoven at San José State University,” Manuscripts 57 (Fall 2005), 281-89.
“Peninsula Banjo Band Jubilee 2005,” Resonator 33 (Dec 2005), 4.
“The Genesis of Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen,” The Medelai Gazette: The Chronicles of King Richard III 12 (August 2005), 11-12.
"Starting from Scratch with Charlie," Peninsula Banjo Band News and Views 11 (August 2001), 3-4.
"Journey to Galicia: After Roland's Song," The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 4, 1998: B7-8. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/14/
"London Diary: At the New Globe, the Play's the Thing," The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 1997: B8. http://works.bepress.com/arlene_okerlund/15/
"State Colleges Must Boost Fees," San José Mercury-News, September 28, 1990, p. 7B.
"San José State threw the life preserver to downtown," San José Mercury-News, September 29, 1983, p. 11B.
"Will Women's Studies Survive?" The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 16, 1979, p. 80.
"Faculty Forum: Johnny Can Learn," San Jose News, September 16, 1977.
Files
Download Curriculum Vitae (737 KB)
Personal Commentary
My career at San José State has made possible a life far more interesting than I ever imagined while growing up on a farm in western Maryland and attending a small rural school from which 44 seniors graduated in my class of 1956. Education made the difference—which explains my fierce, perhaps even obsessive, devotion to the students, faculty, and curriculum at SJSU.