Associate Professor of French and French Studies
B.A., Harvard College; M.A., Ph.D., Princeton University
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Donald Rung was inspired by a seventh-grade French teacher, Mrs. Kasmala, to continue French in high school and college, but unable to commit himself to a single subject, majored in History and Literature of England and France. At Harvard, a seminar given by Anna Cancogni exposed him to the beauties of French structuralist criticism, the study of which he pursued at the University of Hawaii and then Princeton. At Princeton he wrote his dissertation on Descartes' use of classical rhetoric, a subject that he continues to research. Other research interests include emblematics and, most recently, the place of money in the transition to the modern age. Coming to Sewanee directly from the Northeast, where he grew up, he has fallen in love with the natural beauty of Sewanee's environment and the warmth of its people. He enjoys playing sports, playing the guitar, reading science fiction, and accompanying his children on their journey to adulthood.
