Gina Barreca
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.[1][2] She is the author of ten books and editor of 11 others.[3] 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.[4] She is a member of the New York Friar's Club and an honoree of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.[4][5] 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 was an ELLE Reader's Prize selection that June.[2][6] Currently, she is working on a book about loneliness.
Gina Barreca | |
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![]() Barreca in 2007 | |
Born | Regina Barreca 1957 (age 63–64) |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College, New Hall, Cambridge, City University of New York |
Spouse(s) | Michael Meyer |
Website | GinaBarreca.com |
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.[7] Her stories from this time can be found in her memoir, Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.[8]
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.”.[7]
Career
Professor
From 1981 to 1987, Barreca was a Graduate Assistant/Adjunct Lecturer at Queens College. In 1987 she became an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she became an Associate Professor of English in 1991. From 1997 on she has been Professor of English.[7][9] She has also been a Reed Fellow for English Language and Literature at UConn since 2017.[7] 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.[1][7]
Articles and other publications
She is currently a columnist for the Hartford Courant,[10] as well as a blogger for Psychology Today, where she has over 6 million views.[4]
Barreca has also published articles in The New York Times,[11] The Philadelphia Inquirer,[12] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune,[13][14] Harvard Business Review, The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine,[15][16] The Orlando Sentinel,[17][18] Ms. magazine,[19] The Common Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education,[20] 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.[21] They worked for two years via email and on the phone without having met first.[22]
Barreca appeared in Milton Friedman's documentary Free to Choose - Episode 6, as a student for Dartmouth College.[23]
Books
In 2011, Barreca published a memoir called Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.[8]
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.[24][6]
Currently she is working on a book about loneliness that will be released in 2020.
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.[25]
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.[24]
Personal
Barreca married her husband, Michael Meyer, in 1991. They live in Storrs, Connecticut.[26]
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[27]
- Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League (2005), ISBN 978-1-58465-299-1[28]
- I'm with Stupid (2004), ISBN 978-0-7432-4420-6, co-written with Gene Weingarten[29]
- 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[30]
- 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[31]
- They Used to Call Me Snow White…But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (1991), ISBN 978-0-14-016835-8[32]
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[33]
- 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
- Louisa May. Little Women Regina Barreca (Introduction), Susan Straight (Afterword) ISBN 9780593198025
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.[34] She received an honorary degree from Manchester Community College in 2014, and honorary Doctorate of Human Letters, Charter Oak State College, Connecticut in 2016.[7]
References
- "Six CLAS Professors Receive AAUP Excellence Awards | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences". clas.uconn.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
- "Regina Barreca". University of Connecticut Department of English. University of Connecticut. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- "Gina Barreca". Geno Auriemma UConn Leadership Conference. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
- "Gina Barreca Ph.D". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- "Induction Ceremony 2012 | Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame". cwhf.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
- Barreca, Gina. "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?". Macmillan Publishers. St. Martin's Press. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Regina Barreca. "curriculum vitae" (PDF). uconn.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- Barreca, Gina. "Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-Education in the Ivy League". University Press of New England. University Press of New England. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- "Regina Barreca - Department of English". english.uconn.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- "Gina Barreca". Hartford Courant. The Tribune. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "HEPBURN MEMO; All Girl, but Never a Girly-Girl". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Barreca, Regina. "A dying father, impatient to the end". The Philadelphia Inquirer. H.F. Gerry Lenfest. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "Patty Duke and the good girl/bad girl syndrome". Chicago Tribune. The Tribune. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "The $150,000 purse and other 'wife bonuses'". Chicago Tribune. The Tribune. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- "Keynote Speakers". Greenways Coming Home. Dartmouth College. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Sundberg Seaman, Kelly. "Talking With: Gina Barreca '79". Dartmouth News. Dartmouth. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "Hillary Clinton is a woman who doesn't know her place". Orlando Sentinel. The Tribune. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "Here are 10 things you must stop doing immediately". Orlando Sentinel. The Tribune. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "Real stories, real laughter, real women". Ms. Magazine. Liberty Media for Women, LLC. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina. "Why I Love Fay Weldon". The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Barreca, Gina; Weingarten, Gene. "I'm with Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up". Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- Morales, Tatiana (9 February 2004). "'I'm With Stupid'". CBS News.
- Common Sense Capitalism (2010-12-23), Free to Choose Part 6: What's Wrong With Our Schools Featuring Milton Friedman, retrieved 2019-03-16
- "Regina Barreca | Department of English". english.uconn.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
- Barreca, Gina. "It's Not That I'm Bitter…". Macmillan Publishers. St. Martin's Press. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- "Regina Barreca – Connecticut Marriage Index". FamilySearch. 12 October 1991.
- Review of It's Not That I'm Bitter: Publishers Weekly
- Reviews of Babes in Boyland: Kirkus, Journal of American Culture, Publishers Weekly
- Review of I'm with Stupid: Publishers Weekly
- Review of Sweet Revenge: Los Angeles Times
- Review of Perfect Husbands: Kirkus
- Reviews of They Used to Call Me Snow White: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus
- Regina Barreca. "The Erotics of Instruction". upne.com. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- "Where's Your Diploma? – Brainstorm – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education". www.chronicle.com. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
External links
- Official website
- Gina Barreca at The University of Connecticut