Jerry Herron is the founding dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University. He led WSU’s Honors Program from 2002 until it became a College in 2008. Honors is also home to CommunityEngagement@Wayne, which provides faculty with the tools necessary to strengthen their course content, students with the opportunity to give back and apply classroom theories in a hands-on way, and community organizations with the chance to receive assistance from some of Wayne State’s most dedicated students.
Herron was born in Abilene, Texas, and received his PhD and MA from Indiana University and a BA from the University of Texas at Austin. A gifted scholar and teacher, his publications include two books, Universities and the Myth of Cultural Decline, and AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History. His essays and critical articles have appeared in Raritan, Social Text, Representations, Georgia Review, and Antioch Review, among other journals.
Herron has twice received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Wayne State. He also received the Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. Prior to being named director of the Honors Program in 2002, he was associate chair in the Department of English and director of the university’s American Studies Program. He is Immediate Past President of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), on the NCHC Publication Board, and is also chair of the Wayne State University Press Editorial Board.
