William A. Gleason M.A. ’90, Ph.D. ’93

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Having proven himself a model teaching assistant and inspiring teacher and colleague, William Gleason has already been recognized by two distinguished teaching assistantship awards at UCLA. Not surprisingly, he has already accepted a tenure-track position at Princeton University.

In his dissertation, Gleason analyzes what happened to the work ethic at the end of the 19th country when work became disguised as leisure. Drawing on mainstream authors as well as mass-media magazines and cultural historians, he has written an interdisciplinary exposition of the highest caliber and has also published three essays.

Bill has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Amherst Memorial Fellowship for each of four academic years he has pursued his undergraduate degree at Amherst. He has also received the Luckman Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award as well as the Distinguished Teaching Dissertation Fellowship. He has chaired at least three sessions at English graduate student conferences in Southern California, participated in another at Vassar College and served as conference organizer and session chair of “English: New Historical Perspectives” at UCLA. In fall 1992, the College of Letters and Science selected Bill to receive the Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

Bill has chaired a number of committees within the UCLA English Graduate Union, and has been a research assistant and teaching fellow. In the words of one of his nominators, “This is a man who will grace the classroom wherever he goes, one who will in turn leave his mark as a scholar and educator. He embodies all the finest qualities of a teaching humanist – brilliance, poise, warmth, commitment, elegance and openness.”