Harold Aram Veeser (born November 3, 1950)[1] is an American professor of English at City College of New York, best known for his founding role as a theorist of new historicism, in addition to his contributions to the historiography of postcolonial theory.
He holds a BA, MA, and PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University,[2] where he studied under the supervision of postcolonial theorist Edward Said.
In 2010, Veeser published a biography of Said, which combines " never-before-published interviews, debate transcripts, and photographs" with short personal anecdotes.
[3] Derided as "hagiography"[4] in a review published by the American conservative think tank Middle East Forum, other reviewers have been more positive, finding it to be a "corrective to some of the more fawning tributes that have appeared in recent years," drawing comparisons to Robert Irwin's more openly critical analysis of Said's work, Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents.
[5] Prior to his work on Said, Veeser was primarily known for his literary and art criticism, collected in a number of influential collections of literary criticism, in addition to popular magazines and academic journals, including The Nation Magazine, The Journal of Armenian Studies, Ararat, and Armenian Forum.