Bernard J. Rhie

Bernie Rhie

Associate Professor of English

Sawyer Library Rm 608

Office Hours: During the Spring 2025 semester, I will hold drop-in office hours on Mondays from 2:30-4pm and Fridays from 4-5pm. My office is located on the sixth floor of the Sawyer Library building (also known as Stetson Hall); the sixth floor of Stetson/Sawyer can be accessed using the elevator by the Sawyer Library circulation desk.  

About me: My name is Bernie Rhie. I teach courses on philosophical approaches to literary studies; the influence of Buddhism on American literature and culture; and Asian American literature. I’m also a long-time Zen practitioner, and in recent years, I’ve been exploring ways to incorporate contemplative practices like meditation into some of my college courses.

To see my CV, click here.

Meditation: I often lead meditations around campus. One regular offering is a sitting group that meets on Tuesday evenings at Tasha Yoga on Spring Street. To learn more about this group, click here. If you’d like to receive announcements about this and other meditation offerings, I invite you to follow my Instagram account. I’ve also recorded some guided meditations for the Williams community, which you can find on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Education

B.A. University of California-Berkeley (1997)
M.A. University of Pennsylvania, English (2001)
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, English (2005)

Scholarship/Creative Work

Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism (New York: Continuum 2011). A collection of commissioned essays that explore the relevance of Cavell’s writings for literary theorists and critics. Co-edited with Richard Eldridge (Philosophy, Swarthmore College). This volume is connected to a conference I organized with Richard Eldridge, which took place at Harvard’s Humanities Center in October 2010. More information about that conference can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/cavell-conference.

Selected essays:

Digital Projects

  • Founder of OLP & Literary Studies Online, an academic blog for scholars who work at the crossroads of ordinary language philosophy and literary studies (blog active from 2009-2017)

Awards, Fellowships & Grants

  • Nelson Bushnell ‘20 Prize for Teaching and Writing, Williams College, 2020
  • Aliis Non Sibi Prize, Berkshire School, May 2016 (“selected by members of the graduating class, the recipient of this award follows the motto ‘for others, not ourselves.’”)
  • Diane Hunter Prize for Best Dissertation, English, University of Pennsylvania, 2006 (Dissertation title: The Philosophy of the Face and 20th Century Literature and Art; Susan Stewart, dissertation advisor)
  • Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania, 2000
  • Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, 1997-2001
  • Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1997-2002
  • Honors Thesis Prize, English, University of California at Berkeley, May 1997 (Thesis title: “Coleridge’s Middle Passage: Associationism, Abolitionism, and Anthropology”; Stephen Best, thesis advisor)
  • Patrick Pacheco Memorial Scholarship, Santa Rosa Junior College, May 1995 (for a transferring sophomore who shows promise as a future teacher)

Current Committees

  • Asian American Studies Program Advisory Committee

Overview of Teaching at Williams

  • Introduction to Asian American Literature
  • What is a Self? Investigations in Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology
  • Zen and the Art of American Literature
  • Meditation and Modern American Life (Inside-Out course taught at the Berkshire County House of Corrections)

    Students in “Meditation and Modern and American Life” (Berkshire County House of Corrections, Fall 2019)
  • Director, English Department Honors Program and Instructor, English Department Honors Colloquium
  • Introduction to the Novel
  • Independent Study on Borderlands​, Latinx, and Asian-American Identities (Manami Diaz Tsuzuki)
  • Independent Study on the Influence of Buddhism on American Literature and Culture (Louisa Kania)
  • Independent Study on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (Sam Swire)

  • Self and Subjectivity: Investigations in Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology (Summer Humanities and Social Sciences Program)
  • Asian American Literature: Prose (Tutorial)
  • Wittgenstein and Literary Studies
  • Teaching High School English in Independent Schools (Winter Study)
  • The Ethics of Fiction

    Ruth Ozeki visiting ENGL 312
    Ruth Ozeki visiting “Zen and the Art of American Literature” to discuss A Tale for the Time Being (Fall 2018)
  • The Problem of Modernity and the Modernist Imagination (Tutorial)
  • Literary Theory and Ordinary Language
  • The Face: Image, Theory, Politics (Williams Graduate Program in Art History)
  • The Human Face in the Modern Imagination
  • Beginning Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (Winter Study)
  • Philosophy and Poetry: Ancient Quarrels and Modern Questions
  • J.M. Coetzee
  • Time-Consciousness in Modern Literature and Philosophy

Teaching at Other Institutions

  • Berkshire School (2015-2017): 11th and 12th Grade English, Dystopian Fictions (Senior Elective), Modern Wars and Modern Literature (Senior Elective), Meditation for Beginners (Pro Vita 2016), Yoga and Mindfulness (with Stephanie Turner, Pro Vita 2017)
  • Boston University (2013): Contemporary Literature and Ordinary Language, for the BU Graduate Program in English, co-taught with Robert Chodat
  • Germantown Friends School (2003-2005): 12th Grade English, Introduction to Western Philosophy, Self + Portraiture: Modern Views of the Person (Spring Elective)
  • University of Pennsylvania (1998-2000): American Modernism in Verse, Poetry and the City: The Prelude through Howl, British Romanticism, American Literature to 1900

Selected Presentations

  • “On Contemplative Education: Mindfulness in the College Classroom,” a sample class (based on ENGL 239, “Zen and the Art of American Literature”) for Friends & Family Weekend, October 27, 2023 (slideshow)
  • “Mindful Teachers, Teaching Mindfulness: Slowing Down to Deepen Learning” (audio), an experiential session for “Slow: A Symposium in Praxis & Theory,” hosted by MCLA and MASS MoCA. November 1, 2019.
  • “Zen Meditation and Contemplative Education” (video / handout), First Congregational Church, Williamstown, MA. May 12, 2019.
  • “What is Zen?” (video), a presentation for the Greylock Talks Series, Mt. Greylock Regional School, March 15, 2019.
  • “On Contemplative Education: Meditation and Anti-Oppression Pedagogy,” Williams College Davis Center Brown Bag Lecturette Series, March 6, 2019.
  • “Zen and the Art of Reading: Buddhism, Critique, and Contemplative Education” (slideshow), keynote address for the bi-annual Graduate Student Conference, Department of Comparative Thought and Literature (formerly the Humanities Center), Johns Hopkins University. Also leading a related seminar for conference participants on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s “Pedagogy of Buddhism.” February 22-23, 2019. By invitation.
  • “Zen and the Art of American Literature” (slideshow), Williams College Faculty Lecture Series, March 1, 2018.
  • Storyteller, Williams College StoryTime, November 12, 2017.

    StoryTime (Nov. 12, 2017)
  • “Writing is Thinking 2,” workshop presenter and leader, Center for Philosophy, Arts, and Literature, Duke University, March 1, 2013. By invitation.
  • “On the Philosophy of the Face,” a lecture for the Department of Philosophy, Auburn University, November 11, 2011. By invitation.
  • “Wittgenstein on the Face of a Work of Art,” pre-circulated paper, for “No Quarrels: Literature and Philosophy Today,” a workshop/conference at the Humanities Foundation, Boston University, April 1-2, 2011. By invitation.
  • “Writing is Thinking: Writing as a Way of Life in the Academy,” workshop presenter and leader, Center for Philosophy, Arts, and Literature, Duke University, January 28, 2011. By invitation.
  • “Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of the Face,” a lecture at the Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins University, as part of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences’ “Futures Seminar,” October 29, 2010. By invitation.
  • On Neuroscience and the Arts,” gallery talk associated with the exhibition, Landscapes of the Mind: Contemporary Artists Contemplate the Brain, Williams College Museum of Art, February 25, 2010. 
  • “On the Philosophy of the Face,” workshop presentation at the first “Young Scholars Workshop,” Center for Philosophy, Arts, and Literature, Duke University, February 19-20, 2010. By invitation.
  • “On the Philosophy of the Face,” a lecture sponsored by the Critical Theory Emphasis, U.C. Irvine, November 10, 2009. By invitation.
  • “Philosophy and Literature: Reading across the Disciplines,” workshop participant, Mellon workshop at Wesleyan University, May 9-10, 2007. By invitation.

Selected Service at Williams

  • Chair, Asian American Studies Program (Spring 2025)
  • Williams Wellbeing Blueprint Committee (2022-23)
  • Interview with Writing Center Director (Julia Munemo) about academic writing (video), Summer 2020
  • Teach Summer Team 2020
  • Chair, Department of English, July 2020 – July 2023
  • Associate Chair, Department of English, December 2019 – July 2020
  • Mindfulness Meditation Classes, Wellness at Williams Program, for Williams College Staff and Faculty, Tuesdays at Noon, June 18, 2019 – July 23, 2019.
  • Instructor, “Intro to Zen” series. For Williams College faculty, students, staff, and members of the local community. Tuesdays, January 8 to April 30, 2019. (Williams Record article about this series here.)
  • Chaperone, Davis Center Spring Break Trip to Philadelphia, March 20-22, 2019
  • Interview and Selection Committee, Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford (Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2019)
  • “Breakfast Club,” Breakfast Meetings with Faculty Job Candidates, organized by the Office for Institutional Diversity and Equity (2017-2020)
  • Organized a faculty/staff discussion of the book Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning (eds. Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush), July 11, 2018
  • Curricular Planning Committee Working Group on Asian American Studies (2018-2019)
  • Williams College Faculty Representative, C3/LADO (Liberal Arts Diversity Consortium) Visit, U.C. Berkeley, April 16-17, 2018
  • Director, English Department Honors Program (2018-2019)
  • Mindfulness Instructor, for Wellness at Williams (Spring 2018)
  • First3 Program Coordinator (2018-2020)
  • Faculty, Williams College Summer Humanities and Social Sciences Program (Summer 2018)
  • Co-organizer (with Seth Wax), Winter Study One-Day Meditation Retreats (January 2018, January 2019)
  • Co-organizer (with Jason Josephson Storm), Williams College Meditation Group (2017-2018)
  • Graduate Studies Advisor, English Department (2017-2018)
  • Director of the Williams College Tutorial Program (2013-2015)
  • Faculty Liaison, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) and Williams College Undergraduate Research Fellowship (WCURF) Programs (Spring 2012-Summer 2014)
  • Elected untenured Division I representative, Faculty Steering Committee (2010-2012, 2007-2008)
  • Co-organizer (with Holly Edwards, Art History), Williams College Visual Studies Initiative (2006-2007): a year-long faculty reading group and lecture series, with talks by Margaret Livingstone (Neurobiology), Mieke Bal (Literature), Kwame Anthony Appiah (Philosophy), and William Kentridge (Art)