Virgina Kirby-Smith Carruthers

Virgina Kirby-Smith Carruthers

associate professor
School of Communications Design

Additional Roles:

director, B.A. in English program

Contact Information:

Phone: 410.837.6027
E-mail: vcarruthers@ubalt.edu

M.A., Ph.D., Duke University
B.A., Goucher College
Virginia Carruthers' C.V.

As a teenager, I was stage-struck and desperately wanted to be an actress. Fortunately, I realized that I had no talent before I'd made a fool of myself. Years later, when I was in graduate school, I was delightfully surprised to discover the opportunities that a classroom offers to the frustrated thespian.

My passion for dramatic literature led me first to pursue a master's degree with a focus on Shakespeare. Then, for my doctoral thesis at Duke, I spent a year in Australia researching the origins and development of theater and drama on the island continent. Currently director of the undergraduate English programs, I teach a wide range of literature, including Shakespeare, modern adaptations of classical myths, detective fiction and contemporary Australian fiction.

I have presented papers at conferences sponsored by the American Association of Australian Literary Studies, to which I belong, and have published essays on Australian novelists. As a member of the International Lawrence Durrell Society, I have traveled to Alexandria, Egypt; to Avignon, Provençe, France, and to the Greek islands of Corfu and Rhodes as a participant in conferences devoted to the author of The Alexandria Quartet, The Avignon Quintet and numerous poems with Greek themes and settings. I also served for a number of years as associate editor for Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal.