Emeritus Professor of English Michael Lieb
It is with great sorrow that the English Department shares the news of the loss of Emeritus Professor of English Michael Lieb, who died on August 2, 2022.
Lieb was among the most distinguished faculty members at UIC. He was a celebrated scholar of the works of John Milton, and wrote numerous books and articles that influenced the directions of his field. He concentrated on matters of religion and politics in Milton’s work in Poetics of the Holy: A Reading of Paradise Lost (1981) and Milton and the Culture of Violence (1994). He also explored the hermeneutics of prophecy in The Visionary Mode: Biblical Prophecy, Hermeneutics, and Cultural Change (1991), and the complex history of interpreting the book of Ezekiel in Children of Ezekiel: Aliens, UFOs, the Crisis of Race, and the Advent of End Time (1998). In Theological Milton: Deity, Discourse, and Heresy in the Miltonic Canon (2006), he returned to his core interests, investigating the relationship between the language of theology and the language of poetry in Milton’s works. With John T. Shawcross and Mark R. Kelley, he co-edited Milton and the Grounds of Contention (2003); with Albert C. Labriola, he co-edited Milton in the Age of Fish: Essays on Authorship, Text, and Terrorism (2006).
Recognition for Lieb’s work beyond UIC included NEH, ACLS, and Guggenheim fellowships. His work also earned him numerous awards, including Honored Scholar from the Milton Society of America in 1992, as well as the James Holly Hanford Award and the Irene Samuel Prize, both from the Milton Society. He was co-founder of the Milton Seminar at the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies in 1986; the seminar continues to flourish today.
Lieb was known to faculty, students, and friends as a brilliant scholar, devoted teacher, generous mentor, and supportive colleague. He will be greatly missed, even as we continue to honor his memory. Further notice about a symposium at the Institute for the Humanities to celebrate Lieb’s work will be circulated later.