Seth Lerer is the Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, San Diego. Before taking this position, he was the Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. He also taught at Princeton University, Cambridge University, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Professor Lerer earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, a second B.A. from Oxford University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Professor Lerer’s research interests include medieval and Renaissance studies, early Tudor literary culture, textual criticism, Old and Middle English literature, and children’s literature. Professor Lerer has published 10 books, including Chaucer and His Readers and Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language. He is also the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and reviews.

Professor Lerer has received many awards for his scholarship and teaching, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Beatrice White Prize of the English Association of Great Britain (for Chaucer and His Readers), and the Hoagland Prize for Undergraduate Teaching at Stanford.