Gina Barreca

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.[6][8] She has also been a Reed Fellow for English Language and Literature at UConn since 2017.[6] 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.[1][6]

She is currently a blogger for Psychology Today, where she has over 7.5 million views.[4]

Barreca has also published articles in The New York Times,[9] The Philadelphia Inquirer,[10] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune,[11][12] Harvard Business Review, The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine,[13][14] The Orlando Sentinel,[15][16] Ms. magazine,[17] The Common Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education,[18] and Cosmopolitan and elsewhere. Barreca's books have been translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese.

Her poem, "Nighttime Fires," first published in the Minnesota Review, is widely anthologized and regularly taught.

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.[19] They worked for two years via email and on the phone without having met first.[20]

Barreca appeared in Milton Friedman's documentary Free to Choose - Episode 6, as a student for Dartmouth College.[21]

In 2011, Barreca published a memoir about being one of the first classes of women at Dartmouth College titled Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League.[7]

One of the founding scholars to focus on women's humor in literature, her earliest books on the topic, Last Laughs: Perspectives on Women and Comedy2 by and "New Perspectives on Women and Comedy" were reissuedin 2022 by Routledge Library Editions.

In 2021, she partnered with Woodhall Press to originate the "Fast Women" series and published "Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction", which she edited. In 2022, "Fast Fierce Women" was released. "Fast Fallen Women" will appear in 2023.

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.[22]

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.

• "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?" (2016), ISBN 978-1-250-06074-7
• It's Not That I'm Bitter, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (2009), ISBN 978-0-312-54726-4[24]
• Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Co-education in the Ivy League (2005), ISBN 978-1-58465-299-1[25]
• I'm with Stupid (2004), ISBN 978-0-7432-4420-6, co-written with Gene Weingarten[26]
• An ABC of Vice: An Insatiable Woman's Guide (2003), ISBN 978-0-939883-11-0, illustrated by Nicole Hollander
• Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful (2000), ISBN 978-0-939883-06-6
• Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even (1995), ISBN 978-0-425-15766-4[27]
• Untamed and Unabashed: Essays on Women and Humor in British Literature (1994), ISBN 978-0-8143-2136-2
• Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales) (1993), ISBN 978-0-385-47538-9[28]
• They Used to Call Me Snow White…But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (1991), ISBN 978-0-14-016835-8[29]

• Fast Fallen Women (2023), ISBN 978-1-954-907-78-2
• Fast Fierce Women (2022), ISBN 978-1-954-907-00-3
• Fast Funny Women (2021), ISBN 978-1-949-116-20-5
• Make Mine A Double: Why Women Like Us Like to Drink (or Not) (2011), ISBN 978-1-58465-759-0
• The Signet Book of American Humor (2004), ISBN 978-0-451-21058-6
• Don't Tell Mama: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing (2002), ISBN 978-0-14-200247-6
• A Sit-down with the Sopranos: Watching Italian American Culture on TV's Most Talked About Series (2002), ISBN 978-0-312-29528-8
• The Erotics of Instruction (1997), ISBN 978-0-87451-806-1[30]
• The Penguin Book of Women's Humor (1996), ISBN 978-0-14-017294-2
• Desire and Imagination: 20 Classic Essays in Sexuality (1995), ISBN 978-0-452-01150-2
• Fay Weldon's Wicked Fictions (1994)
• New Perspectives on Women and Comedy (1992), ISBN 978-2-88124-533-6
• Sex and Death in Victorian Literature (1990), ISBN 978-0-253-31015-6
• Last Laughs (1988) ISBN 978-0677220208

• Dorothy Parker. Complete Stories Colleen Bresse (Editor), Regina Barreca (Introduction) ISBN 978-0142437216
• Louisa May. Little Women Regina Barreca (Introduction), Susan Straight (Afterword) ISBN 978-0593198025

She has received a number of honorary degrees. In 2000, she received an honorary degree from Shepard's College in West Virginia.[31] She received an honorary degree from Manchester Community College in 2014, and honorary Doctorate of Human Letters, Charter Oak State College, Connecticut in 2016.[6]