CSUB English Department

Michael Flachmann
Professor of English and
Director of the University Honors Program

Michael Flachmann

Contact Information:

Office: Faculty Towers 201D
Phone: 661-654-2121
Fax: 661-654-2063
Email: mflachmann@csub.edu

Areas of Specialization and Interest:

Shakespeare
Renaissance Literature
Dramaturgy

Michael Flachmann, Professor of English and Director of The University Honors Program at California State University, Bakersfield, earned his B.A. at the University of the South, his M.A. at the University of Virginia, and his doctorate at the University of Chicago. He has written sixteen books--most recently Shakespeare in Performance: Inside the Creative Process, Blood Royal: Shakespeare's Henry VI Trilogy, Shakespeare From Page to Stage: An Anthology of the Most Popular Plays and Sonnets, Beware the Cat: The First English Novel (Huntington Library Press), The Image of Idleness: England's First Epistolary Novel, Shakespeare's Lovers, Shakespeare's Women, Teaching Excellence, The Prose Reader: Essays for Thinking, Reading and Writing (co-authored with his wife, Dr. Kim Flachmann, and now in its tenth edition), and Nexus: A Rhetorical Reader for Writers, plus over eighty articles in such journals as Shakespeare Quarterly, Studies in English Literature, English Literary Renaissance, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Studies in Philology, Stage Direction, and others. He has also worked for many years in professional theatre, serving as dramaturg for over one hundred Shakespearean productions at such prominent west-coast theatres as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the La Jolla Playhouse, California Institute of the Arts, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival (where he has been company dramaturg since 1986). In 1993 he was selected Outstanding Professor for the twenty-campus California State University System, in 1995 he was named "U.S. Professor of the Year" by the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, D.C., and in 1999 he was given a $20,000 Wang Family Excellence Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching in the CSU. Flachmann's avocations include Judo, a sport in which he is a fifth degree black belt, and tennis.

Special Courses

· Shakespeare

· Renaissance Literature

· Medieval and Renaissance Drama

· Bibliography

· Judo and Self Defense

· Camp Shakespeare at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

· University Honors Program

Books

· Nexus: A Rhetorical Reader for Writers (2012)

· Shakespeare in Performance: Inside the Creative Process (2011)

· Blood Royal: Shakespeare's Henry VI Trilogy (2011)

· The Prose Reader (tenth edition, co-authored with Kim Flachmann, 2012)

· Shakespeare from Page to Stage: An Anthology of the Most Popular Plays and Sonnets (2006)

· The Brief Prose Reader (co-authored with Kim Flachmann, 2003)

· Teaching Excellence: A Collection of Essays on College Education Written by Recipients of the California State University Trustees' Outstanding Professor Award (1998)

· The Image of Idleness: England's First Epistolary Novel (1990)

· Beware the Cat: The First English Novel (1988)

· Shakespeare's Women (1986)

· Shakespeare's Lovers (1982)

Selected Articles

· "The Taming of the Script," California English (April, 2010)

· "Much Ado about Something," Insights Magazine (Summer, 2010)

· "The Rhythm of the Kiss: Poetic Seduction in Romeo and Juliet," Inside English (October, 2010)

· "The Kindest Cut of All: Editing Shakespeare's Scripts for Performance." Stage Directions (January, 2009)

· "Great Teachers and Dead Sharks," The Art of College Teaching (2005)

· "Parrot, Parody, and Paronomasia: Damnable Iteration in Henry IV, Part I," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2004)

· "Measure for Measure: From Design to Production," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2003)

· "Cymbeline in the Wooden O," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2002)

· "Macbeth on the Couch," Shakespeare Bulletin (2000)

· "Reading Shakespeare (and Other Unnatural Acts)," Teaching Shakespeare into the 21st Century (1997)

· "Suit the Action to the Word: Teaching Minds and Bodies in the English Classroom," Inspiring Teaching: Essays by Carnegie Foundation National Professors of the Year (1997)

· "Changing the W's in Shakespeare's Plays," Teaching Shakespeare Today (1993)

· "Fitted for Death: Measure for Measure and the Contemplatio Mortis," English Literary Renaissance (Spring, 1992)

· "All Corners of the World: Spatial and Moral Geography in Cymbeline," On Stage Studies (1989)

· "Teaching Shakespeare Through Parallel Scenes," Shakespeare Quarterly (Winter, 1985)

· "Epicoene: A Comic Hell for a Comic Sinner," Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England (Spring, 1984)

· "Ben Jonson and the Alchemy of Satire," Studies in English Literature (Spring, 1977)

Awards

· CSUB Faculty Service Award (2002)

· CSUB Faculty Research Award (2000)

· $20,000 CSU Wang Family Excellence Award (1999)

· Phi Delta Theta Fraternity "National Distinguished Alumnus Award" (1997)

· Carnegie Foundation United States Professor of the Year (1995)

· California State University System-Wide Outstanding Professor (1993)

· CSUB Outstanding Professor (1992)

· Phi Beta Kappa (1964)

Special Interests

· Playing Tennis