Gerald Graff
American scholar and author. Born and raised in Chicago, Graff went on to earn his B.A. in English from the University of Chicago. After receiving his doctorate in English and American literature from Stanford University, he taught at a number of universities before settling at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has taught writing and literature since 2000. Graff has authored books such as
Literature against Itself (1979) and Professing Literature: An Institutional History (1987) that champion what he calls "literature's rational, discursive qualities"; his books critiquing American intellectual culture include Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind (2004). Most recently, Graff and his wife, writer Cathy Birkenstein, have co-authored "They Say/I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (2014). See also geraldgraff.com.