Henry A. Kelly

Henry Ansgar Kelly is distinguished research professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.[1]

Kelly received his A.B. in classics from St. Louis University in 1959 and two years later his A.M in English literature and Ph.L. in philosophy from the same university. He entered Harvard University in 1961, receiving his Ph.D. in 1965. During his time at Harvard Kelly was selected as a junior fellow by the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 1964 to 1966, Kelly took courses at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry as a Jesuit scholastic.[1]

Kelly was a resident scholar at the American Academy in Rome in 1966. The following year, Kelly became assistant professor in the Department of English at UCLA. He was promoted to associate professor in 1969 and to professor in 1972. From 1980 to 1981 Kelly was visiting professor at the University of Sydney. He was distinguished professor at UCLA from 1986 to 2004, and Emerit Distinguished Professor from 2004 to 2012. Since then he has been distinguished professor of English.[1]

Kelly's research interests include medieval and Renaissance literature and history, biblical studies, and ecclesiastical history and theology.[1]

Kelly has received several awards and honors in his career. He was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1971–72), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1980–81; 1996–97), the Del Amo Endowment (1986), and was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (1986).[2] He served as vice-president (1986–88) and president (1988-1990) of the Medieval Association of the Pacific.[3] He was the recipient of a UC President's Research Fellowship in the Humanities (1996–97) and director of the Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA. In the festschrift published in his honor when he stepped down from the latter position in 2003, his scholarly career was summed up thus: “Henry Ansgar (Andy) Kelly’s prolific scholarship ranges over a wide variety of topics: medieval and renaissance literature and history (in English, Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian, from Aristotle to Shakespeare—and Seamus Heaney), ecclesiastical history and theology, demonology, canon law and Church ritual, lay piety, drama, lexicology, philology, and contemporary academic and national politics. He is the author of twelve books and about a hundred articles and reviews. His learning is famously encyclopedic.”[4]

In 2009, he received the UCLA Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award,[5] and in 2018, the University of California Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeritus Award. The citation in the latter reads:

"“Andy” Kelly, Distinguished Research Professor of English, retired in 2004 and his contributions to UCLA and to scholarship since that time have been impressive. His scholarly contributions since retirement include 6 books and 37 papers on a wide range of topics: literature (Chaucer); Roman and Canon Law; History (inquisitions and other ecclesiastical trials; torture; Galileo); Theology (exorcism; heresies); and Biblical Studies (textual investigations; English Bible). Most notable is Satan: A Biography published by the Cambridge University Press in 2006. This book became an academic “best seller” and has now been translated into six other languages (French; Italian; Greek; Portuguese; Russian; and Czech). He also published studies on heresy trials including that of Sir Thomas More, and how the English Inquisition differed from its continental counterpart. Andy’s “service” has been two major contributions to the scholarship of the Middle Ages: returning to the editorship the journal Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies in 2003. Viator, published by the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, has an international profile for its scholarship and two generations of graduate assistants have profited from working on it. Andy also directed the digitization of the 1582 edition of Corpus Juris Canonici (Corpus of Canon Law), which is now available on-line for legal and ecclesiastic scholars worldwide."[6]