Ann Moss

{{Short description|British professor of French and French literature}} {{for|the American operatic soprano|Ann Moss (musician)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Use British English|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Ann Moss | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Jennifer Ann Poole | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1938|1|21}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2018|8|13|1938|1|21}} | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | citizenship = | residence = | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = {{marriage|John Michael Barry Moss|1960|1966|reason=div}} | children = Two | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = Barr's Hill School | alma_mater = Newnham College, Cambridge | thesis_title = A study of the Latin editions of Ovid and commentaries printed in France, 1487–1600 | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1975 | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = French literature <br /> classical reception | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = {{plain list| * University College of North Wales * Trevelyan College, Durham * Durham University }} | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Jennifer Ann Moss''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA}} (''née'' '''Poole'''; 21 January 1938 – 13 August 2018) was a British scholar of French literature and classical reception, specialising in the French Renaissance.<ref name="DCCR">{{cite web |title=Professor Ann Moss |url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/classical.tradition/people/annmoss/ |website=Durham Centre for Classical Reception |publisher=Durham University |accessdate=9 September 2018}}</ref> She was Professor of French at the University of Durham from 1996 to 2003. In retirement, she became a lay minister in the Church of England.

==Early life and education== Moss was born on 21 January 1938 to John Shakespeare Poole and Dorothy Kathleen Beese (née Sills). She was educated at Barr's Hill School, then a grammar school in Coventry, West Midlands.<ref name="WW 2018">{{cite web |title=Moss, Prof. (Jennifer) Ann |website=Who's Who 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U28316 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U28316 |date=1 December 2017}}</ref> She studied the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos at Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1959:<ref name="obit BMFBA">{{cite journal |last1=De Smet |first1=Ingrid A. R. |author1-link=Ingrid De Smet |title=Moss, Ann, 1938-2018 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy |date=2020 |volume=XIX |pages=255–275 |publisher=The British Academy |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2641/19-Memoirs-12-Moss.pdf }}</ref> as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree.<ref name="WW 2018" /><ref name="Emeritus">{{cite web |title=Emeritus Titles |url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/university.calendar/volumei/emeritus_titles/ |publisher=Durham University |accessdate=9 September 2018}}</ref> She then began postgraduate studies at Cambridge under the supervision of Ian McFarlane.<ref name="obit BMFBA" /> However, marriage, children and the beginning of her career put her research on pause, before finally completing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1975.<ref name="WW 2018" /><ref name="obit BMFBA" /> Her doctoral thesis was titled "A study of the Latin editions of Ovid and commentaries printed in France, 1487–1600".<ref>{{cite thesis |title=A study of the Latin editions of Ovid and commentaries printed in France, 1487–1600 |url=https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.466410 |website=E-Thesis Online Service |publisher=The British Library Board |accessdate=9 September 2018 |year=1975|type = PhD}}</ref>

==Academic career== From 1963 to 1964, Moss was an assistant lecturer in the French Department of the University College of North Wales in Bangor: she had to give up this job to care for her two young children.<ref name="obit BMFBA" /> After separating from her husband, she joined the newly formed Trevelyan College, Durham as a resident tutor in 1966, living in nearby accommodation with her children and a nanny. She was also a part-time university lecturer while working at Trevelyan from 1966 to 1979. She became a full-time lecturer in French at the University of Durham in 1979, and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1985 and to reader in 1988. She was appointed Professor of French in October 1996, and served as head of the School of Modern European Languages between 2000 and 2003.<ref name="obit BMFBA" /> She was made Professor Emerita on her retirement 2003,<ref name="WW 2018" /><ref name="FBA">{{cite web |title=Professor Ann Moss |url=https://www.britac.ac.uk/users/professor-ann-moss |website=British Academy |accessdate=9 September 2018}}</ref><ref name="Emeritus" /> and appointed an honorary research fellow of the now named School of Modern Languages to continue her research and lecturing.<ref name="obit BMFBA" />

Moss's research interests ranged from 16th-century French literature, including Pierre de Ronsard and Michel de Montaigne, to neo-Latin and history of the book. Her second monograph ''Poetry and Fable: Studies in Mythological Narrative in Sixteenth-Century France'' (1984) bridged her doctoral studies on Ovid and her more recent interests in French literature. In ''Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought'', described by the British Academy as her "landmark monograph", she traced the development of commonplace books from the ancient world into the Middle Ages and then through the age of the printing press. She also had an interest in post-Medieval Latin writings, and regualary spoke at the congresses of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies.<ref name="obit BMFBA" />

Outside of her university posts, Moss was active in the administration of the British Academy.<ref name="obit BMFBA" /> She was a member of its Publications Committee from 1999 to 2004 and its council from 2003 to 2006.<ref name="FBA" /> She served as chair of its Early Modern Languages and Literatures Section from 2007 to 2010.<ref name="obit BMFBA" />

==Personal life== In 1960, she married John Michael Barry Moss (1931–1985), a fellow academic who specialised in the philosophy of science.<ref name="WW 2018" /><ref name="obit BMFBA" /> Together they had two daughters.<ref name="WW 2018" /> They divorced in 1966, and she would go on to raise their children as a single parent.<ref name="WW 2018" /><ref name="Memoriam">{{cite web |title=In Memoriam: Emerita Professor Ann Moss FBA |url=https://causeway.education/professor-ann-moss/ |website=Causeway Education |accessdate=9 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180909150648/https://causeway.education/professor-ann-moss/ |archive-date=9 September 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Moss was additionally an active member of the Church of England. She trained as a lay minister in retirement, serving as a reader from 2005 to 2010.<ref name="WW 2018" /> She was first assigned to St Oswald's Church, Durham and then to St Paul's Church, Spennymoor.<ref name="obit BMFBA" />

Moss died on 13 August 2018 in Morden College, Blackheath, London, aged 80.<ref name="Memoriam" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Prof. Ann (Poole) MOSS |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimes-uk/obituary.aspx?n=ann-moss-poole&pid=190136805 |work=The Times |accessdate=16 September 2018 |date=5 September 2018}}</ref> Her funeral mass was held at Durham Cathedral.<ref>{{cite web |title=Durham Cathedral Service Schedules|url=https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/_assets/media/editor/Service_Schedules/2018-19-10-23-september.pdf|website=Durham Cathedral|accessdate=18 September 2018 |date=18 September 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180918123636/https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/_assets/media/editor/Service_Schedules/2018-19-10-23-september.pdf |archive-date = 18 September 2018}}</ref>

==Honours== In 1998, Moss was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.<ref name="FBA" /> A ''Festschrift'' titled ''(Re)Inventing the Past'' was published in her honour on her retirement in 2003.<ref name="obit BMFBA" /><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Ferguson |editor1-first=Gary |editor2-last=Hampton |editor2-first=Catherine |title=(Re)Inventing the past: essays on French early modern culture, literature and thought in honour of Ann Moss |date=2003 |publisher=University of Durham |location=Durham |isbn=978-0907310556}}</ref> On 28 January 2013, she was awarded the Chancellor's Medal by Durham University in recognition of distinguished service.<ref name="obit BMFBA" />

==Selected works==

* {{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Ann |title=Ovid in Renaissance France: a survey of the Latin editions of Ovid and commentaries printed in France before 1600 |date=1982 |publisher=Warburg Institute |location=London |isbn=978-0854810598}} * {{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Ann |title=Poetry and fable: studies in mythological narrative in sixteenth-century France |date=1984 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521258890}} * {{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Ann |title=Printed commonplace-books and the structuring of Renaissance thought |date=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0198159087}} * {{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Ann |title=Renaissance truth and the Latin language turn |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199249879}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Ann}} Category:1938 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Scholars of French literature Category:British literary critics Category:British women literary critics Category:British literary historians Category:British women historians Category:Literary critics of French Category:Academics of Durham University Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Historians of French literature Category:British Anglicans Category:People educated at Barr's Hill School Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:Academics of Bangor University Category:Anglican lay readers Category:Classical reception studies