Deborah L. Nelson (born 14 December 1962) is an American academic. Nelson earned her doctorate from the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

and joined the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

faculty in 1996. She was appointed the Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English in 2018. Her 2017 book, ''Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil'' won the 2018 James Russell Lowell Prize awarded by the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

, and the 2019

Gordon J. Laing Award The Gordon J. Laing Award is conferred annually, by the University of Chicago's Board of University Publications, on the faculty author, editor, or translator whose book has brought the greatest distinction to the list of the University of Chicago ...

. In 2023, Professor Deborah L. Nelson was appointed dean of the

Division of the Humanities.

Early life and education

Nelson graduated from Simsbury High School. She graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

with a bachelor of arts in English in 1985. She graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with a masters in English in 1990.

References

1962 births Living people 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers University of Chicago faculty CUNY Graduate Center alumni Columbia University alumni American women academics Yale College alumni {{US-English-academic-bio-stub