Cyrus Patell

Cyrus R. K. Patell is Professor of English at NYU in New York. He received his AB, AM, and PhD in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. His recent scholarship and teaching have centered on the theory and practice of world literature; cosmopolitanism; Global Shakespeare; representations of technology; and the literature and culture of New York City. His current teaching includes a large lecture course for NYU’s Core Curriculum entitled Frankenstein and His Progeny and an English Department junior research seminar on tragedy.

Patell is the author most recently of Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe (2021), published by Bloomsbury as part of its “Philosophical Filmmakers” series. With Deborah Lindsay Williams, he co-edited volume 8 of the 12-volume Oxford History of the Novel in English on US fiction after 1940, writing the chapter on cosmopolitanism and Indigenous fiction and co-authoring several others.

Patell is presently at work on two monographs: Frankenstein and His Progeny, based on the Core Curriculum course, and Hamlet Worldwide: The Life and Legacies of the World’s Most Famous Play, a study of the ways in which Shakespeare's Hamlet became a part of global cultural heritage. In 2004, Patell received the Distinguished Teaching Award, NYU's highest honor for teaching. From 2010–2013, Patell was the inaugural Associate Dean of Humanities for NYU Abu Dhabi.