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Regina Barreca (born 1957) is an American
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
and
humorist A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...
. She is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of
English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
and
feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...
at the
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...
and winner of UConn's highest award for excellence in teaching. She is the author of ten books, including the best selling ''They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (Viking/Humor)'' and editor of 13 others. Her work has appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''The Independent of London'', ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', ''Cosmopolitan,'' and ''The Harvard Business Review;'' for 20 years she wrote columns for various ''Tribune'' newspapers as well as a series of cover stories for the ''Chicago Tribune''. She is a member of the New York Friar's Club and an honoree of the
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...
.


Early life and education

Barreca grew up in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, and is of Italian descent. She was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar at
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
, where she earned her 1979 bachelor's degree. Her stories from this time can be found in her memoir, ''Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.'' She was a Reynolds Fellow and earned her 1981 M.A. at New Hall,
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, and earned her 1987 Ph.D. (English Literature) from the Graduate School,
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
, dissertation: “Hate and Humor in Women’s Literature: Twentieth-Century British Writers.”.


Career


Professor

From 1981 to 1987, Barreca was a Graduate Assistant/Adjunct Lecturer at
Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
. In 1987 she became an Assistant Professor of English at the
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...
, where she became an Associate Professor of English in 1991. From 1997 on she has been Professor of English. She has also been a Reed Fellow for English Language and Literature at UConn since 2017. As of 2018, she has received the American Association of University Professors Excellence in Research and Creativity: Career Award, and was named the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English Literature.


Author


Articles and other publications

She is currently a blogger for ''
Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...
,'' where she has over 7.5 million views. Barreca has also published articles in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'', ''
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'', the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', ''
Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...
'', ''The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine'', ''
The Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, ''Tribune Pu ...
'', ''
Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'' magazine, ''
The Common Review ''The Common Review'' was the literary magazine of the Great Books Foundation. History and profile ''The Common Review'' was started as a quarterly publication in Fall 2001. The founder was the former Great Books Foundation president Peter Temes. ...
'', ''
The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...
'', and ''
Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...
'' and elsewhere. Barreca's books have been translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese. Her poem
"Nighttime Fires,"
first published in the Minnesota Review, is widely anthologized and regularly taught. Barreca cowrote a series of humor columns in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' with
Gene Weingarten Gene Norman Weingarten (born October 2, 1951) is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both ...
about the differences between men and women. These became the basis of the book she wrote with Weingarten, ''I'm with Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up.'' They worked for two years via email and on the phone without having met first. Barreca appeared in Milton Friedman's documentary ''Free to Choose'' - Episode 6, as a student for
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
.


Books

In 2011, Barreca published a memoir about being one of the first classes of women at Dartmouth College titled ''Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.'' One of the founding scholars to focus on women's humor in literature, her earliest books on the topic, ''Last Laughs: Perspectives on Women and Comedy''2 by and "New Perspectives on Women and Comedy" were reissuedin 2022 by Routledge Library Editions. In 2021, she partnered with Woodhall Press to originate the "Fast Women" series and published "Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction", which she edited. In 2022, "Fast Fierce Women" was released. "Fast Fallen Women" will appear in 2023.


Speaker

A noted public speaker, Barreca lectures nationally and internationally about a variety of topics including humor, women's comedy, women's lives, everybody's stress, and gender issues in the workplace. She has served as an advisor to the Library of Congress for work on humor and the American character, and was deemed a "feminist humor maven" by ''Ms.'' magazine. She has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs including ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...
'', ''
20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
'', '' 48 Hours'', ''
The Joy Behar Show ''Joy Behar: Say Anything!'' was an American news program and talk show hosted by Joy Behar. The program had its "Preview" while Behar filled in as a week-long host on '' Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer'' on June 18, 2012, and officially premiered ...
'', '' Dr. Phil'', and ''
The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...
''.


Personal

Barreca married her husband, Michael Meyer, in 1991. They live in Storrs,
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.


Works and publications


Books written

* ''"If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?"'' (2016), * ''It's Not That I'm Bitter, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World'' (2009), * ''Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League'' (2005), * ''I'm with Stupid'' (
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
), , co-written with
Gene Weingarten Gene Norman Weingarten (born October 2, 1951) is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both ...
* ''An ABC of Vice: An Insatiable Woman's Guide'' (
2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
), , illustrated by
Nicole Hollander Nicole Hollander (born April 25, 1939) is an American cartoonist and writer. Her daily comic strip '' Sylvia'' was syndicated to newspapers nationally by Tribune Media Services. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Hollander was the daughter o ...
* ''Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful'' (
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
), * ''Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even'' (
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
), * ''Untamed and Unabashed: Essays on Women and Humor in British Literature'' (
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
), * ''Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales)'' (
1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
), * ''They Used to Call Me Snow White…But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor'' (
1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
),


Books edited

* ''Fast Fierce Women'' (2022), * ''Fast Funny Women'' (2021), * ''Make Mine A Double: Why Women Like Us Like to Drink (or Not)'' (2011), * ''The Signet Book of American Humor'' (
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
), * ''Don't Tell Mama: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing'' (
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
), * ''A Sit-down with
the Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
: Watching Italian American Culture on TV's Most Talked About Series'' (
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
), * ''The Erotics of Instruction'' (
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
), * ''The
Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...
Book of Women's Humor'' (
1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
), * ''Desire and Imagination: 20 Classic Essays in Sexuality'' (
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
), * ''
Fay Weldon Fay Weldon CBE, FRSL (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including ''Puffball'' (1980), '' The ...
's Wicked Fictions'' (
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
) * ''New Perspectives on Women and Comedy'' (
1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
), * ''Sex and Death in
Victorian Literature Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era tha ...
'' (
1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
), * ''Last Laughs'' (1988)


Books introduced

*
Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...
. ''Complete Stories'' Colleen Bresse (Editor), Regina Barreca (Introduction) * Louisa May. ''Little Women'' Regina Barreca (Introduction), Susan Straight (Afterword)


Honorary degrees and awards

She has received a number of honorary degrees. In 2000, she received an honorary degree from Shepard's College in West Virginia. She received an honorary degree from Manchester Community College in 2014, and honorary Doctorate of Human Letters,
Charter Oak State College Charter Oak State College is a public online college based in New Britain, Connecticut. The college was founded in 1973 by the Connecticut Legislature and offers associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees. The college is adjacent to Central Con ...
, Connecticut in 2016.


References


External links

*
Gina Barreca
at
The University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Har ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barreca, Gina Living people Radical feminists University of Connecticut faculty American academics of English literature American humorists 1957 births People from Storrs, Connecticut American writers of Italian descent Writers from Brooklyn University of Cambridge in fiction Women humorists Penguin Books people American memoirists American women memoirists Comedians from New York (state) Hartford Courant people Gender studies academics Dartmouth College alumni Alumni of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge People from Long Island