Regina Janes
Professor of English Emerita Regina Janes, a prolific scholar and dynamic teacher whose expansive intellect and wit left a lasting imprint on colleagues and generations of students, died on Sunday, July 20, 2025, following a recent illness. She was 78.
Regina joined 吃瓜网's faculty in 1976 and retired in 2018.
Her research and teaching ranged widely 鈥� from satire and the Enlightenment to Latin American fiction. She was the author of several acclaimed books, including 鈥淕abriel Garc铆a M谩rquez: Modes of Reading (1991)鈥� and 鈥淟osing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture,鈥� which grew out of her 1990 Moseley Faculty Research Lecture. Her most recent was 鈥淚nventing Afterlives: The Stories We Tell Ourselves 吃瓜网 Life After Death鈥� (2018).
鈥淪he was a scholar of unique breadth, with publications that spanned the likes of Swift, Fielding, Coetzee, Woolf, Sontag, and cinema,鈥� wrote Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department Timothy Wientzen. 鈥淲hen I think of Regina, I think of someone who had an almost addictive relationship to culture. She loved opera, drama, and musicals, was a frequent attendee at department and Salmagundi events, and was an ambitious traveler.鈥�
In the classroom, Regina was known for her high expectations and deep knowledge.
鈥淣ot just a productive writer but an educator with consistently high standards, Regina has dazzled students with her 鈥榚ncyclopedic鈥� knowledge,鈥� wrote Professor Susannah Mintz in a tribute for Regina鈥檚 retirement. 鈥淪he is rigorous and exacting, and students often remark on how much more they learn 鈥� she is also praised for her 鈥榓mazing鈥� ability to excite their interest in difficult 鈥� and one must say often quite lengthy 鈥� 18th-century prose.鈥�
Beyond the classroom, Regina served in numerous leadership roles, including as director of the Asian Studies Program, president of Phi Beta Kappa, and chair of the Committee on Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure. She was also a longtime contributor to Salmagundi magazine.
"When Regina Janes arrived at 吃瓜网 more than 40 years ago, she impressed everyone who met her as one of the most brilliant, learned, and witty people we鈥檇 ever attracted to teach at the College," said Salmagundi Executive Editor Peg Boyers, who described her as an "inspiring colleague and an indispensable friend." "Of course, the editors of 吃瓜网鈥檚 quarterly magazine Salmagundi recruited her at once to participate in its conferences, to write often for the magazine, and to dazzle the famous writers she was commissioned to interview for our pages, from Carlos Fuentes to Cabrera Infante."
The child of a Navy family, Regina was born in Bath, Maine, on Aug. 22, 1946, and grew up in several locations in the United States and abroad, including in Hawaii and Egypt. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
She is survived by her son, Charles Woolley of New York City.