Gina Barreca

Gina Barreca
Born	Regina Barreca 1957 (age 66–67)
Alma mater	Dartmouth College, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, City University of New York
Spouse	Michael Meyer
Website	GinaBarreca.com

Regina Barreca (born 1957) is an American academic and humorist. She is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English literature and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut and winner of UConn's highest award for excellence in teaching. She is the author of ten books and editor of 11 others. Her weekly articles from The Hartford Courant are syndicated internationally by the Tribune Co. and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Independent of London, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. She is a member of the New York Friar's Club and an honoree of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Her latest book, "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?" Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times, was published by St. Martin's Press in the spring of 2016 and an ELLE Reader's Prize selection.

Early life and education

Barreca grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York, and is of Italian descent. She was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar at Dartmouth College, 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, and earned her 1987 Ph.D. (English Literature) from the Graduate School, City University of New York, dissertation: “Hate and Humor in Women’s Literature: Twentieth-Century British Writers.”.

Career

Professor

Barreca was a 1981-87 Graduate Assistant/Adjunct Lecturer, Queens College, 1987-91 Assistant Professor of English, University of Connecticut, 1991-97 Associate Professor of English, University of Connecticut, and 1997-present Professor of English, University of Connecticut. and has been an engagement fellow at the University of Connecticut, her first appointment in 1987. As of 2018, she has received the American Association of University Professors Excellence in Research and Creativity: Career Award.

Author

Articles and other publications

She is currently a columnist for the Hartford Courant, as well as a blogger for Psychology Today.

Barreca has also published articles in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune, Harvard Business Review, The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, The Orlando Sentinel, Ms. magazine, The Common Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Cosmopolitan and elsewhere. Barreca's books have been translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

Barreca cowrote a series of humor columns in The Washington Post with Gene Weingarten 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.

Books

In 2011, Barreca published a memoir called Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.

Her most recent book, "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?" Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times, was published by St. Martin's Press in the spring of 2016.

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, 20/20, 48 Hours, The Joy Behar Show, Dr. Phil, and The Today Show.

Recently, Barreca joined the Mark Twain House and Museum Board of Trustees.

Personal

Barreca married her husband, Michael Meyer, in 1991. They live in Storrs, Connecticut.

Works and publications

Books written

• "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?" (2016), ISBN 978-1-250-06074-7
• It's Not That I'm Bitter, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (2009), ISBN 978-0-312-54726-4
• Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League (2005), ISBN 978-1-58465-299-1
• I'm with Stupid (2004), ISBN 978-0-7432-4420-6, co-written with Gene Weingarten
• An ABC of Vice: An Insatiable Woman's Guide (2003), ISBN 978-0-939883-11-0, illustrated by Nicole Hollander
• Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful (2000), ISBN 978-0-939883-06-6
• Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even (1995), ISBN 978-0-425-15766-4
• Untamed and Unabashed: Essays on Women and Humor in British Literature (1994), ISBN 978-0-8143-2136-2
• Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales) (1993), ISBN 978-0-385-47538-9
• They Used to Call Me Snow White…But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (1991), ISBN 978-0-14-016835-8

Books edited

• Make Mine A Double: Why Women Like Us Like to Drink (or Not) (2011), ISBN 978-1-58465-759-0
• The Signet Book of American Humor (2004), ISBN 978-0-451-21058-6
• Don't Tell Mama: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing (2002), ISBN 978-0-14-200247-6
• A Sit-down with the Sopranos: Watching Italian American Culture on TV's Most Talked About Series (2002), ISBN 978-0-312-29528-8
• The Erotics of Instruction (1997), ISBN 978-0-87451-806-1
• The Penguin Book of Women's Humor (1996), ISBN 978-0-14-017294-2
• Desire and Imagination: 20 Classic Essays in Sexuality (1995), ISBN 978-0-452-01150-2
• Fay Weldon's Wicked Fictions (1994)
• New Perspectives on Women and Comedy (1992), ISBN 978-2-88124-533-6
• Sex and Death in Victorian Literature (1990), ISBN 978-0-253-31015-6
• Last Laughs (1988) ISBN 978-0677220208

Books introduced

• Dorothy Parker. Complete Stories Colleen Bresse (Editor), Regina Barreca (Introduction) ISBN 0142437212 ISBN 978-0142437216

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, Connecticut in 2016.

External links

• GinaBarreca.com
• 79GinaB youtube
• Gina Barreca at The University of Connecticut