Jeffrey J. Williams

Jeffrey J. Williams
Born1958 (age 67–68)
OccupationsLiterary and cultural studies scholar and critic
Known forCritical university studies
Title
  • Professor of English
  • Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies
Academic background
Alma materStony Brook University
Academic work
Institutions
Main interests

Jeffrey J. Williams (born 1958) is an American literary and cultural studies scholar and critic.[1] Since 2004, he has been a Professor of English and of Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Williams is most known for his contributions to critical university studies, including his 2012 naming of the field, and his extensive critical interview project.[2][3] He is the former editor of The Minnesota Review and co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

Early life and education

Aged twenty years, Williams left Columbia College without completing his degree and worked at Downstate Correctional Facility as a New York State correction officer.[4] In 1984, he graduated from Stony Brook University with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and gained his PhD (English) in 1990.[5] He worked at Routledge from 1989-1990.[6]

Academic career

In 1990, Williams became an Assistant Professor of English at East Carolina University and then joined the University of Missouri in 1998.[7] In 2004, he joined Carnegie Mellon’s English Department as a Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies.[5] From 1992 until 2010, Williams was the editor-in-chief of The Minnesota Review. In 2010, Carnegie Mellon cut funding for the journal, a move Williams publicly critiqued in The Chronicle of Higher Education.[8]

Williams conducted over eighty interviews with critics, theorists, and philosophers as a part of The Interview Project.[9] The interviews appeared in a number of journals.[10][11][12][13][14] Some of the interviews were republished in Critics at Work: Interviews 1993-2003.

In 2012, Williams coined the term “Critical University Studies” in print and defined its scope in his essay “Deconstructing Academe: The birth of critical university studies."[2] He is the editor of Critical University Studies series alongside Christopher Newfield.[15] His critical university studies writing has focused on student debt, academic labor, innovation and inequality, the academic novel, and the politics of tenure.[16][17][18][19][20]

Selected published works

  • Williams, Jeffrey J., ed. (1994). PC Wars: Politics and Theory in the Academy. Routledge.
  • Williams, Jeffrey (1998). Theory and the Novel: Narrative Reflexivity in the British Tradition. Literature, Culture, Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43039-5.
  • Williams, Jeffrey J., ed. (2001). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
  • Williams, Jeffrey J., ed. (2004). Critics at Work: Interviews 1993-2003. New York: New York University Press. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  • Williams, Jeffrey J.; Steffen, Heather, eds. (2012). The Critical Pulse: Thirty-Six Credos by Contemporary Critics. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53073-6.
  • Williams, Jeffrey J. (2014). How to Be an Intellectual. Bronx: Fordham University Press. Retrieved January 27, 2026.

References

  1. ^ Williams, Jeffrey (2014). How to Be an Intellectual: Essays on Criticism, Culture, and the University. New York: Fordham University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-8232-6381-3.
  2. ^ a b Williams, Jeffrey J. (February 19, 2012). "Deconstructing Academe". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  3. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (2018). "Criticism Live: The History and Practice of the Critical Interview". Biography. 41 (2): 235–255. ISSN 0162-4962.
  4. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (April 6, 2007). "The Professor Was a Prison Guard". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  5. ^ a b "Jeffrey Williams - Department of English - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences". www.cmu.edu. Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  6. ^ Williams, Jeffrey (1997). "Editorial Instinct: An Interview with William P. Germano". Minnesota Review. 49: 105–117.
  7. ^ "UMC English Faculty P - Z". www.missouri.edu. Archived from the original on February 20, 1999. Retrieved January 31, 2026.
  8. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (June 13, 2010). "My Life as an Autocratic Editor". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  9. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. "How the Critical Interview Became a Major Academic Genre". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  10. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (2017). "Historicizing African American Literature: An Interview with Ken Warren". symplokē. 25 (1–2): 553–566. doi:10.5250/symploke.25.1-2.0553. ISSN 1069-0697.
  11. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J.; Gallop, Jane (2018). "Sexual/Theoretical Politics: An Interview with Jane Gallop". Diacritics. 46 (3): 80–98. doi:10.1353/dia.2018.0017. ISSN 1080-6539.
  12. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (November 1, 2017). "Ways of Reading". The Minnesota Review. 2017 (89): 83–102. doi:10.1215/00265667-4176100. ISSN 0026-5667.
  13. ^ Galvin, Annie (January 23, 2020). "Public Thinker: Ian Bogost on Games, Doorknobs, and General Readers". Public Books. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  14. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (2021). "Identity and Ability: An Interview with Lennard J. Davis". Cultural Politics. 17 (2): 163–174.
  15. ^ "Critical University Studies". www.press.jhu.edu. Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  16. ^ "Debt Education: Bad for the Young, Bad for America". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  17. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (December 2, 2013). "The Great Stratification". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  18. ^ "Innovation for What? The Politics of Inequality in Higher Education". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  19. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (2012). "The Rise of the Academic Novel". American Literary History. 24 (3): 561–589. doi:10.1093/alh/ajs038. ISSN 0896-7148.
  20. ^ Williams, Jeffrey J. (1999). "The Other Politics of Tenure". College Literature. 23 (3): 226–41.
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