Coppélia Kahn


Coppélia Huber Kahn is Professor Emerita of English and Gender Studies at Brown University and an internationally recognized Shakespeare scholar. She is best known for her work on feminist and gender studies in the wider field of Shakespeare studies, and was among the first to bring these lenses to bear on the field.

Personal life and education

Kahn was born in 1939 in Seattle. Her parents were Louis Reichert, a journalist, and Hazel Huber, a housewife. She married Judd Kahn on December 26, 1963, but they were divorced on October 1, 1982. She married Avi Wortis on June 21, 1986. Kahn has one child.
Kahn graduated BA with honors from Barnard College in 1961. She took her MA degree in 1964 and PhD in 1970, both at the University of California, Berkeley.

Career history

Kahn started her career in the English department at the University of California, Berkeley where she held roles as a teaching assistant, acting instructor, and lecturerbetween 1962 and 1972 while working on her MA and PhD. In 1972 she moved to the English department at Wesleyan University where she held positions as assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor. Since 1987 she has been a professor in the English department at Brown University.
In the fall of 1983 she was a visiting associate professor at Yale University; in 1986–1987 a visiting professor at UCLA; and in April-May 1996 a visiting professor at the Università degli Studi di Torino.