William Gleason, an associate professor of English, joined the Princeton faculty in 1993. A specialist in 19th- and 20th-century American literature and culture, with particular interest in popular culture, social history, and material culture, Gleason is the author of The Leisure Ethic: Work and Play in American Literature, 1840-1940. He also has written essays on Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, Louise Erdrich, and Charles Johnson. Currently, he is completing a book on architecture, race, and American writing.
In fall 2008 he co-taught a special seminar, along with Princeton baseball coach Scott Bradley, on “The Making of Modern Baseball.” In fall 2009, he will co-teach the AMS core course, American Places, with Ricardo Montez. Gleason earned his B.A. in classics from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in English from the University of California–Los Angeles.
