Brian T. Edwards is a scholar, educator and writer. He is dean of the School of Liberal Arts and professor of English at Tulane University.

In his research, Edwards takes a global approach to thinking about America’s place in the world. He has examined the ways in which cultural understanding—and misunderstanding—has framed global engagement with the Middle East and North Africa, as the U.S. became a world power and to the present. Related to this work, he has pursued a rigorous investigation of how cultural objects and forms circulate globally during the digital age and what that means for politics.

As a strong proponent of language learning and global education, Edwards is developing a vision for the future of the liberal arts for the next generation. This approach responds to the momentous cultural and political shifts brought about the digital age and the specific demands and experiences of Generation Z, and seeks to prepare students for the careers and challenges of tomorrow.

Edwards is committed to reaching a wide range of publics and publishes in a variety of forms, from essays to op-eds to podcasts to interdisciplinary academic articles and books. His creative non-fiction has appeared in a number of magazines and journals, including The Believer, McSweeney’s, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Sewanee Review and A Public Space.

Edwards is currently working on four major projects that advance these overarching goals: the multisited Global Port Cities initiative, a book on Paul Bowles and Tangier in the 1990s, a series on anti-racism in the disciplines, and a set of publications on the future of liberal arts education.

» Learn more about Edwards’s work as dean on the Tulane website.