Theda Shapiro

Theda Shapiro, Professor Emerita of French and Comparative Literature at UC Riverside, died on March 17, 2015, in Riverside. 

Dr. Shapiro was born in Gloversville, upstate New York, in 1943. Named after Theda Bara, the famous actress of the silent film era, she lost her father at a very young age. To support the family, Theda’s mother went to work in a leather-tanning and glove-making factory. In the summer, when school was not in session, young Theda gathered her friends and went to the Gloversville Public Library, where she read encyclopedias all day.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from Columbia University’s Barnard College, Theda Shapiro completed a Master’s thesis on French painters and politics. This is a topic she pursued in greater depth in her Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, which she later adapted and published as Painters and Politics: the European Avant-Garde and Society, 1900-1925 (Elsevier, 1976.)

Dr. Shapiro’s career at the University of California, Riverside, began in 1969, when she was still a graduate student at Columbia, teaching French language and culture. Over the next forty years, she taught in the Departments of History, French, and eventually Comparative Literature, which she also chaired for a period of time. Dr. Shapiro was extremely active on campus, serving at one time or another as the director of the French and Italian programs and president of the Liberal Studies and Interdisciplinary Programs.

For twenty years, Dr. Shapiro worked closely with the Education Abroad Program of the University of California and served as Associate Dean on the UCEAP Staff. She spearheaded the creation of the History of World Literature by Women course, which is now part of the curriculum for the Gender & Sexuality Studies program as well as Comparative Literature. She offered independent studies to an untold number of undergraduate and graduate students who wanted to pursue interests that were not addressed in regular course offerings. In 2006, she was awarded the first UCR Senate Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to the university.

Dr. Shapiro’s work was one of the first to investigate artworks as political documents, focusing especially on Italian futurists, French Fauves, Cubists, and German Expressionists, and connecting various historical materials to cultural artefacts. Her contributions also include articles on artists in the metropolis, Paris architecture and urban planning, the pedagogy of French civilization, and issues in international education.

Colleagues, staff, and students remember Dr. Shapiro as a brilliant intellectual, a generous educator, and a community-minded colleague. Following news of her death, her friends set up a memorial website, where they recalled how “persistent, persuasive, patient, and perceptive,” she was and shared anecdotes and remembrances. “She was a friend, a good friend, to me, my family and many others. That is a big thing. Such friendship is hard to come by.” 

This memorial was adapted by Laila Lalami from the following sources:

1. Theda Shapiro, Dictionary of Art Historians, https://arthistorians.info/shapirot 
2. Faculty notification from Shaun Bowler of Theda Shapiro’s passing, March 17, 2015
3. The Thedapedia Project, maintained by friends of Theda Shapiro: https://thedapedia.wordpress.com/

Photo credit: Theda Shapiro Memorial Page, Facebook