Jonathan Levin

Jonathan Levin

Jonathan Levin is Professor of English and, since 2022, Chair of the Department of English and Linguistics.  He is the author of The Poetics of Transition: Emerson, Pragmatism, and American Literary Modernism (named a “Choice Outstanding Academic Title”) and has edited volumes of Thoreau’s Walden and “Civil Disobedience” (Barnes and Noble Classics Series), Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives (Barnes and Noble Classics Series), and Walt Whitman, a children’s illustrated edition (Sterling Press and Scholastic Press).  He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and conference papers and held a NEH Fellowship at the National Humanities Center in 1998-99.  He has taught at Columbia University and Fordham University (where he also served as English Department Chair), and also served as Dean at SUNY—Purchase, where he was Dean of Humanities, and Drew University, where he was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.  He came to Mary Washington in 2013 as Provost and Chief Academic Officer.  His main areas of interest include American literature from 1830 to the present, American pragmatism (especially the work of psychologist and philosopher William James), environmental literature and ecocriticism, and higher education.  He lives in Fredericksburg with his wife and two daughters, as well as their trusted canine companions, Bam Bam and Baxter.

BA in English and French, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); MA in English, UCLA; PhD in English, Rutgers University (New Brunswick). UMW Directory Profile.