Deborah Fallows is an American writer and linguist. She is a fellow at the

New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal think tank founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, ...

, and was assistant dean in languages and linguistics at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Early life and education

Fallows grew up in both

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

and

Vermilion, Ohio Vermilion is a city in Erie County, Ohio, Erie and Lorain County, Ohio, Lorain counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, on Lake Erie. Its population was 10,659 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located about 35 miles west of Cleveland an ...

. She graduated with a B.A. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and received a Ph.D. in

theoretical linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Career

Fallows was the assistant dean of languages and linguistics at

. She chose to be a stay at home mother after the birth of her second son. Fallows wrote of her experiences in her first book, ''A Mother's Work'' (1985). From 2012 to 2017, Fallows and her husband,

James Fallows James Mackenzie Fallows (born August 2, 1949) is an American writer and journalist. He is a former national correspondent for ''The Atlantic.'' His work has also appeared in ''Slate (magazine), Slate'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New Y ...

, flew their single-engine plane across America to visit small towns, which was the basis of their latest book, ''Our Towns'' (2018). The book was made into an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

documentary film in 2021. Fallows and her husband started the Our Towns Civic Foundation in 2021.

Personal life

With

she has two sons and five grandchildren.

Selected works

* * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fallows, Deborah 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers Harvard University alumni Living people People from Vermilion, Ohio University of Texas at Austin alumni Writers from Ohio Year of birth missing (living people) New America (organization) Georgetown University faculty American women linguists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American linguists 21st-century American linguists