Joseph T. Skerrett, professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, died late last month at his home in Belchertown, Massachusetts. He was 72 years old.
Professor Skerrett joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in 1973 and taught there until his retirement in 2009. He served as director of the American Studies program and in 1996 was honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Multiculturalism. He was the author of Literature, Race, and Ethnicity: Contesting American Identities (Longman, 2001).
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Skerrett was a graduate of St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He earned a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a Ph.D. from Yale University.
