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Paul Stevens, English professor and Canada Research Chair in Early Modern Literature and Culture, has been awarded a 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.

Guggenheim Fellows are chosen on the basis of both exceptional achievement and exceptional promise in scholarly or creative work. The list of recipients from previous years includes more than 100 Nobel laureates and 35 poet laureates. This year's list also includes acclaimed writer Barbara Gowdy, an adjunct faculty member of U of T's masters in creative writing program, and the university's 2010-2011 Jack McClelland Writer-in-Residence.

Stevens’ award will fund the completion of a book called Sola Gratia: English Literature and the Secular Ways of Grace.

“Grace is one of the single most important concepts that separates our modern, largely secular culture of ‘growth’ from the early modern period,” said Stevens. “It is one of the concepts that gives this period its sense of otherness.”

Stevens’ research focus is 17th-century English literature, especially the life and works of John Milton. His most recent publications include Early Modern Nationalism and Milton’s England, a book co-edited with David Loewenstein, which won the 2009 Irene Samuel Memorial Prize, and “Literary History and the Turn to Religion: Milton reading Badiou,” a forthcoming essay in Religion and Literature, which won the 2011 Montaigne Prize.

A passionate and dedicated teacher, his work has been recognized by numerous awards, most recently the 2008 Northrop Frye Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research and the 2010 President’s Teaching Award. In 2009, he was a finalist in the popular TVO Best Lecturer competition.

“Congratulations to Professor Stevens on this high honour,” said Professor Paul Young, U of T’s vice president (research). “Receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship is one of the great career achievements for a researcher. Paul Stevens is one of the country’s leading English scholars and is most deserving of this prestigious recognition. We are fortunate to have him at U of T.”