Janet M. Sharistanian ’75 PhD

Janet M. Sharistanian ’75 PhD, of Lawrence, Kans.; Feb. 6. She taught courses on American literature, emphasizing American poetry and American women writers, most notably Willa Cather and Edith Wharton, at the University of Kansas. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), she directed five summer institutes focused on these and other American women writers. She developed an independent women’s studies program at the university and between 1979 and 1983 served as the director of Kansas University’s Research Institute on Women. In 1983 the University of Southern California invited her to direct a Theme Year in Gender and Scholarship. She taught courses focused on the literature and history of World War I during the 1990s, and the last NEH summer seminar she codirected was on the history and literature of the Great War. She was named Outstanding Teacher in 1974 at the University of Kansas and received the Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award and the Outstanding Woman Teacher Award. She was inducted into the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame.