Distinguished Faculty AwardThe late Peter M. Cummings P'92
The late Peter M. Cummings P'92
Professor Emeritus of English
1970 - 2008
An expert on Shakespeare, Cummings taught English at HWS from 1970-2008, holding roles as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor. He served as the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature from 1981-1983. Cummings led popular courses on Shakespeare, including “Shakespeare’s Language,” “Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies” and “Shakespeare: Tragedies” and study abroad programs to Bath, England. He was published widely on Shakespeare and other poets, in addition to writing some 700 sonnets of his own with nearly 100 published. During the 1983-84 academic year, Cummings received the Mellon Individual Faculty Development Award. Outside of the classroom, he served on several committees at HWS, including the Committee on the Faculty, the President’s Advisory Council, the Grievance Committee and the Committee on Tenure and Promotion. In 2007, he received multiple prizes at the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets competition. Prior to teaching at HWS, Cummings was an assistant Lecturer for the Department of English at Cornell, an Instructor for the Department of English at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and an Instructor for the Department of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature: Greek and English from Cornell University, a master’s degree in English Literature from Cornell and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of North Carolina. Cummings passed away in 2014.
Former students praised Cummings for his passion for English and his compassion for his students.