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In Memoriam: Judy Rawson

Following the recent announcement on the University Website, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/students/news/ourpeople/in_memoriam_judy Prof Michael Bell, former Chair of the Department, has added the following regarding Judy's involvement with the development of the English Literature Department.

Judy founded and ran the Italian Department for many years while also bringing up five children. The Rawsons wanted three which was the only number they never had as the third was twins.

A large part of the Italian Department's activity was providing comparative literature courses, co-taught with English tutors, for students of English since there was no single honours in English degree and even those taking English and American Literature exercised a foreign language of their choice. Students who did not have French, German or Latin learned Italian or Spanish from scratch in their first year. Many became quite engaged by this and some went on to use it in subsequent academic or other careers. The courses, as we then called them, were quite ambitious: 'renaissance epic', for example, in the second year.

After the institution of a single honours degree in English the comparative operation dwindled and the present Italian Department took on a new phase of development. Those who were present in those early days will remember Judy Rawson's evident commitment to public service practised with unobtrusive but effective authority. She ran what seemed from the English Department's standpoint to be a tightly- knit, highly effective team.

Tue 09 Feb 2016, 13:50