Bridget Juliette Gellert Lyons (August 28, 1932 – May 8, 2023) was a Czech-born American Shakespeare scholar and college professor. She was a professor atRutgers University from 1965 to 2003. At Rutgers, she was chair of the English department, and dean of humanities in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Gellert was born inPrague, the daughter of Leopold R. Gellert and Marianne (Mitzi) Petschek-Gellert.[1] Her family fled Europe in the 1930s, and she lived in England and Cuba as a girl, before moving toRye, New York, where her mother died in 1950.[2] Her father was an investment banker.[3] Her maternal grandfather,Julius Petschek, was a wealthy industrialist from a prominent Jewish family in Prague.[4][5] She graduated fromRadcliffe College in 1954, and earned a master's degree at theUniversity of Oxford in 1956. She completed doctoral studies atColumbia University in 1967.[6] Her dissertation was titled "Three Literary Treatments of Melancholy: Marston, Shakespeare and Burton".[7]
Gellert Lyons studied English Renaissance literature, and taught at Rutgers University from 1965 until 2003. Her undergraduate course on Shakespeare enrolled hundreds of students every year. She was chair of the English department, director of graduate studies, and dean of humanities in the School of Arts and Sciences. She was editor of the journalRenaissance Quarterly.[6][8] Gellert Lyons retired from Rutgers in 2003, and endowed a scholarship there with her husband in 2012, for graduate students in Renaissance studies.[6][8]
