Samuel See, an assistant professor of English at Yale identified by a lot of as a compassionate teacher and gifted scholar, was located dead on Nov. 24 in a New Haven jail cell, in accordance to spokespeople for the State Judicial Branch and the New Haven Police Division. He was 34.
See, who came to Yale in July 2009, was on leave this semester from the English Division, exactly where he centered on British and American modernist literature and sexuality scientific studies. On Nov. 27, the NHPD and the Connecticut Judicial Branch — the state division that administers the detainment facility at one Union Ave. where See died — issued press statements outlining the situations of the sudden death, the leads to of which are nonetheless underneath investigation.
Colleagues at Yale and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where See received his Ph.D., stated the scholar’s passing was a reduction not only to the academic area in which he excelled but to the many students he inspired as a teacher and advisor.
“He was a committed instructor and an progressive scholar with a sparkling intelligence and an open, generous heart,” said Langdon Hammer ’80 GRD ’89, chair of Yale’s English Department. “He deeply touched all of us who worked with him right here at Yale.”
John Rogers ’84 GRD ’89, the director of undergraduate research for the department, said in a Thursday electronic mail to the News that See tremendously shaped the intellectual lives of dozens of Yale college students throughout his time at the University.
See’s professors and colleagues at UCLA shared the sense of grief that swept the Yale English Division over the Thanksgiving vacation. Christopher Looby, an English professor at UCLA, mentioned in a Friday email that See’s death came as tragic information to individuals who admired him as a charismatic instructor and imaginative scholar. UCLA English professor Michael North stated he was bewildered by the news.
College students shut to See recalled a devoted and keen professor who inspired them to feel deeply about literature and to master the mechanics of analytical creating.
“He was an intensely rigorous professor — 1 of the greatest I had,” stated Andrew Sotiriou ’13, who took See’s “Tragedy” course. “The rigor in that program was higher than so numerous upper-degree seminars that I took. And I feel that was the course, but also that was definitely his persona.”
Sotiriou, who stated he stayed in regular get in touch with with See even soon after finishing the course, remembered See as a sweet but extreme man who at times appeared to struggle below the pressures of academia.
Emily Wanger ’13, a former City editor for the Information, mentioned she chose to key in English due to the fact of the class she took with See — a professor she mentioned “embodied the ideals of a truly wonderful teacher: passionate about educating and studying, simultaneously patient and exacting with regard to students’ perform, and sincere in his willingness to mentor his students.”
Lindsey Uniat ’15, a workers reporter for the Information, similarly traced her selection to major in English to a class with See titled “Writing about Literature.” She said See took a deep curiosity in his students — not just in their academic work, but in their extracurricular interests. She recalled an hours-prolonged conversation with See in excess of lunch in Jonathan Edwards School, and stated she usually went to his workplace to examine coursework as well as her other interests.
“I only hope that the unfortunate situations surrounding his death do not … influence how he is remembered,” Uniat mentioned. “The guy described in the information articles or blog posts does not sound at all like the Professor See I knew.”
Biographical information about See remained sparse in the week following his death. He acquired his B.A. in English from California State University, Bakersfield in 2001, going on to receive two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in the subject. Each Yale College Dean Mary Miller and Yale spokesperson Tom Conroy stated they did not know information about household members by whom See is survived.
See’s husband, Sunder Ganglani, could not be reached for comment. The couple was married in Could 2013 but subsequently grew to become estranged, every registering a protective order against the other. The violation of those orders is what precipitated the domestic dispute final weekend that sent See to jail.
Ganglani served as a educating assistant at the University although learning at the Yale School of Drama and presently performs in New York City as an artist, in accordance to his LinkedIn page. He posted a message on his Facebook webpage on Nov. 25, the day following the death of his husband, asking buddies for business and declaring that “there is practically nothing that can consider really like away.”
At the time of his death, See had begun work on a book manuscript entitled “Queer Natures: Feeling Degenerate in Literary Modernism.”
Students, colleagues remember See
President John F. Kennedy is presented the 1961 Laetare Medal in the Oval Workplace. Attending the presentation (L-R): unidentified man Father Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., vice president of Notre Dame Rep. John Brademas, Indiana Kennedy Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame and two unidentified males.