Deirdre English

Deirdre English is an American author and former Editor-in-Chief of Mother Jones magazine, where she worked for eight years. She has written and edited work on various subjects related to investigative reporting, cultural politics, gender studies, and public policy.

Deirdre English is co-author, with Barbara Ehrenreich, of For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice (1978), along with many pamphlets. She contributed essays on the work of photographer Susan Meiselas published in Carnival Strippers (2003).

Her essay The Fear that Feminism Will Free Men First has been anthologized in numerous collections, most recently in Women’s Liberation! Feminist Writings that Inspired a Revolution & Still Can, edited by Honor Moore and Alix Kates Shulman (2021).

English was a co-founder of one of the first women’s studies programs in the US and also taught American Studies and magazine feature writing at the College of Old Westbury at the State University of New York. She has taught at City College of New York and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Deirdre English currently teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has worked since 2000. English has taught seminars on narrative writing, on course Gender and Journalism, and Intersectional Identities.

Photo credit: Berkley Journalism