I am the Commonwealth Professor of English and German at the University of Virginia, where I also have an appointment in History. I teach and write about European intellectual history, the history of knowledge and technology, universities, and social theory. I studied political theory at Davidson College and did my graduate work at UC Berkeley.
I have written or edited books on the history of anthropology, the modern research university, the history of reading and print, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Max Weber. I have also published in The Times Literary Supplement, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Hedgehog Review. My latest book, After the University, is a history of the university from the perspective of intellectual desire.
I grew up in western North Carolina, between Asheville and Charlotte and just north of the South Carolina border. My wife and I have three kids who are into wildly different things. I like baseball.
Contact me: mcw9 at virginia dot edu
Chad Wellmon 