Dean Michael Shinagel

25-Year Honorand in Extension

Michael Shinagel

This fall marks the 25th year that Michael Shinagel has taught at the Harvard Extension School, a teaching career that began in the fall of 1959 when he taught a section of Expository Writing under the supervision of John U. Monro, Dean of Harvard College. Shinagel taught with Dean Monro for four years before completing his PhD in the Harvard English department and departing for Cornell University, where he was assistant professor of English for three years, and then to Union College (Schenectady, NY), where he was professor and chair of the English department. He returned to Harvard in the fall of 1975 as successor to Reginald H. Phelps, Dean of the Extension School.

Shinagel resumed his teaching in the Harvard Extension School in the fall of 1976 with a humanities seminar, Sex, Literature, and Censorship, followed in 1977 with a seminar, Studies in the English Novel, and another seminar, Satire, in 1978. In 1981 he taught a lecture course, The English Novel before 1800, while in successive years alternating courses on the English novel and satire. In recent years he has taught graduate seminars: Five Creators of the English Novel and Forms of Satire.

He has since 1983, as a Senior Lecturer on English, taught courses each spring in Harvard College. In 1983 he taught a graduate seminar, Eighteenth-Century Satire, and in subsequent years he has lectured Harvard undergraduates on The English Novel before 1800 alternating every other year with Satire: Augustan and Modern.

His specialization is English literature of the Restoration and eighteenth century. His publications include Daniel Defoe and Middle Class Gentility (Harvard University Press, 1968), Concordance to the Poems of Jonathan Swift (Cornell University Press, 1972), Norton Critical Edition of Robinson Crusoe (1975, revised 1993), and many articles and book reviews.

In addition to his scholarly field of English literature, Dean Shinagel is a recognized authority on continuing education. He is a member of several university visiting committees, including Hebrew College of Brookline, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas of Lima, and Universidad Argentina de la Empresa of Buenos Aires. He lectures widely in the United States and abroad. In recent years he has lectured on total quality management, strategic planning, and higher education administration in South America, Israel, and the Caribbean, as well as on continuing education in Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and on the mainland. Dean Shinagel has been an active member of the University Continuing Education Association and the Association for Continuing Higher Education for nearly 25 years, participated as a presenter on many programs, published articles and reviews on continuing education in assorted professional journals, and currently serves as editor of the Continuing Higher Education Review.

As well as being dean of continuing education and university extension and senior lecturer on English, Dean Shinagel is master of Quincy House--the largest of the Harvard College residential complexes--a position he assumed in 1986. As master he oversees more than 470 undergraduates and 30 resident tutors and faculty affiliates who comprise the Quincy House community. Currently he also serves as chair of the council of masters.

In his more than 30 years of service at Harvard University, Dean Shinagel has been a teaching fellow in general education, tutor in English, associate director of the office for graduate and career plans, member of the board of freshman advisors, Peace Corps liaison officer, director of the Summer School, chair of dramatics, board member of the Harvard graduate society, president of the Harvard Faculty Club, and publisher of the Harvard Review, among assorted other roles.

He also has been active in community service, notably as president of the board of directors of the Educational Exchange of Greater Boston, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Computer Academy (Bangalore), board member of the Old South Meeting House (Boston), and vice chair of the board of directors of the Harvard Coop.

Among his many honors, Dean Shinagel is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an awardee of Doctor Honoris Causa (International University of Ecuador), and a listee in Who's Who in America, Directory of American Scholars, Twentieth-Century Authors, and Who's Who in American Education.

On June 6, 2000, Dean Shinagel will be honored at the Harvard Extension School Alumni Banquet in Quincy House for his 25 years of teaching in the Harvard Extension School and for his 25 years of leadership guiding the school. We hope many alumni and alumnae will be present for this historic and festive occasion.