Gina Barreca Biography

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 was an ELLE Reader’s Prize selection that June.

Gina Barreca Age

Regina Barreca 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. She was born on January 14, 1957, Brooklyn, New York, NY. Regina Barreca is 62 years old as of 2019

Gina Barreca 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.”.

Gina Barreca 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.

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.

Gina Barreca Author

Articles and other publications
She is currently a columnist for the Hartford Courant, as well as a blogger for Psychology Today, where she has over 6 million views.

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.

Barreca appeared in Milton Friedman’s documentary Free to Choose – Episode 6, as a student for the Dartmouth College

Gina Barreca 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.

Gina Barreca 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.

Gina Barreca Image

Gina Barreca Husband

Barreca married her husband, Michael Meyer, in 1991. They live in Storrs, Connecticut. Michael Meyer, an American travel writer and the author of The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China from the Ground up; In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China; and The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed.

Perfect Husbands (& Other Fairy Tales) Demystifying Marriage, Men & Romance By Gina Barreca

In this witty, engaging book, Regina Barreca explores the evolving roles of husbands and wives in contemporary American culture. Through interviews and examination of marital relationships in popular culture, Barreca reveals the differences between men’s and women’s beliefs concerning marriage–and the myths and expectations that underlie them.

Barreca reveals how the static myths that many women cling to can lead to unhappiness in today’s changing world. Provocative and humorous, Perfect Husbands (& Other Fairy Tales) is the essential guide to the politics of marriage today.

Praise
“Smart and Funny….A useful guidebook on what to avoid.” —People

“Feminist humor maven Gina Barreca takes on marriage with her characteristic wit and wisdom, demystifying the institution’s roles and expectations clearly and usefully.” —Ms. Magazine

“Barreca, is an academic who respects the impact of pop culture and a feminist with a great sense of humor…to what end? A finer distinction between the promise of romance and the rewards of reality. And lots of laughs.” —Dallas Morning News

“Barreca presents a lively and convincing overview of the politics of marriage. Barreca doesn’t denounce marriage, but she urges women to regard it as a journey instead of a destination and to look upon men as fallible humans instead of husband material. Only then, she notes, can there be true equality in marriage.”

“Sassy…explores the modern matrimonial state from all angles, kicking up plenty of facts, fictions, and jokes along the way. Stop fantasizing and recognize that marriage isn’t perfect, Barreca suggests. But her real purpose here isn’t to prescribe or analyze deeply–it’s just to hold the mirror up to marriage, which she does with good nature and her trademark wit.” —Kirkus Reviews

Gina Barreca Books

It’s Not That I’m Bitter 2009, “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?”: Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times 2016, They Used to Call Me Snow White…but I Drifted 1991, Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-Education in the Ivy League 2005,

I’m with Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up 2004, Perfect husbands 1993, Untamed and Unabashed: Essays on Women and Humor in British Literature 1994, Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even 1995,

Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful 2000, The ABC of Vice: An Insatiable Women’s Guide, Alphabetized 2003, Women of the Century Thirty Modern Short Stories 1993, Maridos Perfectos y Otros Cuentos de Hadas 1993, and Hélène Cixous: Critical Impressions 1999

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, an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters, Charter Oak State College, Connecticut in 2016.

Gina Barreca Quotes

It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds. It’s your best friends who are supremely resilient, made under pressure and of astonishing value. They’re everlasting; they can cut glass if they need to.

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”

“Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.”

“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”

“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.”

“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”