Thomas Heffernan, who holds the Kenneth Curry professorship and is a member of the departments of English and religious studies and the Marco Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, has been chosen to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Manhattan College, his alma mater.
He will be presented the honor at the college’s convocation on Sunday, Oct. 19. Heffernan, a native of New York City, earned his bachelor’s degree at Manhattan.
Heffernan is currently completing a critical edition of the Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis for the series Ancient Christian Authors, and he edited the prestigious journal Studies in the Age of Chaucer for 10 years. He has written some 50 plus scholarly essays and reviews and has lectured and taught in the United States and abroad.
His scholarship has received numerous awards, including the Medieval Academy of America’s Van Courtland Eliot Prize and most recently the National Endowment of the Humanities. He has been the recipient of several fellowships and received the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Citation at UT.