about the author
William Deresiewicz, Ph.D.
Author of A Jane Austen Education
William Deresiewicz is an essayist, book critic, and the author of A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter. He writes about higher education, social media, and other issues of society and culture. Bill is a Contributing Writer for The Nation and a Contributing Editor for The New Republic. His reviews of contemporary fiction have also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Slate, Bookforum, and elsewhere. His essays have appeared in The American Scholar and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Bill’s work was nominated for National Magazine Awards in 2008, 2009, and 2011, and for the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing in 2010. His essay “Solitude and Leadership,” which won a David Brooks Sidney Award in 2010, has been widely taught across the military and corporate worlds. His current book project is Excellent Sheep: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.
Bill was an English professor at Yale from 1998 to 2008. He specialized in 19th-century British fiction and British modernism and also taught courses in the Great Books, South Asian fiction (he lived in India for a year), the literature of friendship, and writing.
Learn more about this speakerPress Links
"Capitalists and Other Psychopaths"
The New York Times
"Jeffrey Eugenides on Liberal Arts Graduates in Love"
The New York Times
"An Infinite Walk"
Slate
"The Cult of the Uniform"
Minnesota Public Radio
"An Empty Regard"
The New York Times
"The Building Is Beige"
The American Scholar
"3 Books on Jane Austen"
The Washington Post
"Is Completing a Ph.D. a Suicide Mission?"
KUOW's The Conversation
"What Makes a Great Leader?"
WBUR Boston
"Lessons from Jane Austen"
New York Times Book Review
"William Deresiewicz on Jane Austen, Community, and Love"
Blog Her
"Does Reading Great Books Make You a Better Person?"
Salon
"How Jane Austen Taught Me to Be a Man"
The Wall Street Journal
A Jane Austen Education Review
The Christian Science Monitor
"Jane Austen Never Errs"
New Haven Advocate
"Facutly Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education"
The Nation
"Deresiewicz on Why Higher Education is Broken"
The Boston Globe
"New Books on Jane Austen: Lessons for the Ages from the Author of 'Pride and Prejudice'"
The Seattle Times
"A Jane Austen Education"
The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Review: Author Tells of Reading Jane Austen"
The Associated Press
"Becoming Jane"
The Boston Globe
"12 Life Lessons You Can Learn from Jane Austen"
The Huffington Post
"Facebook Friends"
CBC TV's Connect with Mark Kelley
"Self-Inflicted"
Bookforum.com
"Crossed Cultures"
Bookforum.com
"Solitude and Leadership"
The American Scholar
"Full Interview: Danah Boyd and William Deresiewicz on Friendship"
CBC Radio's Spark
"Facebook Friends"
NHPR's Word of Mouth
"Faux Friendship"
The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Full Interview: William Deresiewicz on 'The End of Solitude'"
CBC Radio's Spark
"The End of Solitude"
KQED's Forum
"The End of Solitude"
The Chronicle of Higher Education
"The Disadvantages of an Elite Education"
The American Scholar
"The Rest is Silence"
Dissent
"Love on Campus"
The American Scholar
"No Longer Here"
London Review of Books
William Deresiewicz's Article Archive
The Nation
William Deresiewicz's Article Archive
The New Republic
William Deresiewicz's Article Archive
New York Times Book Review
Featured Book
A Jane Austen Education
"A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen's mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works."
—Goodreads.com
Speaking Topics
- Leadership
- Elite Education
- The Crisis in Higher Education
- The Value of the Liberal Arts
- Social Media
- Jane Austen
View Topic Descriptions »
Speaking Topics — William Deresiewicz, Ph.D.
Leadership
What does being a leader really mean? Why are the best people often stuck in the middle of corporate and other organizational hierarchies while the mediocrities rise to the top? How to keep your soul alive in a bureaucratic environment, and how to bring out the best in the people below you.
Elite Education
Elite colleges and universities have devolved into glorified vocational schools, selling marketable skills instead of teaching our kids how to think. Society suffers, scholarship suffers, but most of all, students suffer. What can we do to return college to its proper role?
The Crisis in Higher Education
Public universities are being starved for funds; the academic job market is in a state of free fall; administrative priorities are badly out of balance. America’s higher-education system was key to building our nation’s prosperity, but now it stands at a crossroads. What’s wrong and what we can do about it.
The Value of the Liberal Arts
Math and science are the buzzwords when it comes to talk of educational reform, but ignoring the arts, humanities, and social sciences risks sending us down the road of China and Singapore. Why the liberal arts are vital to creating whole individuals and a better society.
Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, et al. are revolutionizing not only the way we relate to one another, but also the way we understand ourselves. How friendship, solitude, and selfhood are evolving in our brave new mediated world.
Jane Austen
She is the Shakespeare of fiction: profound but entertaining, timeless but familiar, a perennial favorite of readers of all types. What Jane Austen has to teach us.
Testimonials
-
"Bill was a great choice for speaker. His memorable talk about 'Solitude and Leadership,' easily one of the best lectures given at West Point in the past several years, was extremely well received by cadets and faculty alike. He connected brilliantly." - Col. Scott Krawczyk, United States Military Academy
-
"Bill was splendid and a perfect choice for our conference. He shared a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on traditional independent education, stimulating ongoing conversations throughout our conference. Our attendees expressed their desire to hear more from intellectuals of his caliber. Precisely what we had hoped for." - Elizabeth Verhalen, The Association of Boarding Schools
-
"Bill was and is extremely gracious and a great teacher. He engaged our students profoundly and shook them to the core with his message. We are deeply grateful…I look forward to working together again and know that we are ever so pleased with Bill's presence and lecture on campus." - Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, Dean, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, The University of Mississippi
Please contact us for booking requirements and availability.