Background
Born in Glen Cove, New York on Long Island, Hecht attended Adelphi University. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Columbia University in 1995 and for a time studied at the Université de Caen, and the Université d’Angers. She currently teaches poetry and philosophy in the Graduate Writing Program of The New School, teaches poetry in the Graduate Writing Program of Columbia University, and is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities. Hecht is an honorary board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation where she told the FFRF 2009 convention audience: “If there is no god — and there isn't — then we made up morality. And I'm very impressed.”
Read more about this topic: Jennifer Michael Hecht
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)