Deborah Siegel

Deborah Siegel, PhD is a writer and consultant specializing in women’s issues. She is the author of the new book, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (Palgrave Macmillan). She has written about women, sex, feminism, contemporary families, and popular culture for a variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The
American Prospect, Psychology Today, The Progressive, The Mothers Movement Online, and on her blog, Girl with Pen.

With Daphne Uviller, Siegel co-edited the literary anthology, Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo (Random House, Jan. 2007).

Siegel consults with a range of organizations that link research on women and girls’ lives to media and policy, including the National Council for Research on Women (where she previously served as Director of Special Projects), the National Women’s Studies Association, Catalyst, the Council on Contemporary Families, and the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, where she is currently a Fellow. Siegel is co-founder of the webjournal, The Scholar & Feminist Online, which she launched while a Fellow at the Barnard Center for Research on Women in 2003. Siegel received her doctorate in English and American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. She lives in New York City.

Here's what past participants of MAKING IT POP are saying about the course:

“Deborah is a natural instructor. She's vivacious, intelligent, eager, gives great feedback and is a real motivator. I've never done an online course before and Deborah really made us all feel connected and inspired.”

“I was continually impressed with Deborah’s level of commitment to our work. Her comments were thoughtful, thorough, and extensive. That was the best part of the course, getting such excellent feedback from her. It was like getting to be a student again, in all the best ways—with a class of people who were engaged, intelligent, and excited about the same things I was, and an outstanding professor.”

“Deborah was great! She has amazing contacts in the industry and is herself a great resource. She really made each student feel like s/he was getting very individual support on her/his project.”

“I learned so many things about getting my work into the broader world. Although the course was focused on book publishing, I also learned about the importance of op-ed and magazine writing (things I'd been thinking about but hadn't really committed to yet), and I learned invaluable tips for how to market myself. And in addition to the things I learned, I got to see others' work in progress, which was exciting and inspiring.”

“Her outgoing style is very engaging and inclusive—it's hard to pull off conference phone calls since you can't see people's expressions and body language, but she managed it well—and her comments on participants' proposals were VERY thoughtful, detailed, and constructive. I greatly enjoyed actually getting feedback on my writing while in the process of writing, something that doesn't happen much for professors.”

“The most important thing I learned was how to write a book proposal for trade publication from start to finish—this includes format (the specific sections and information that a proposal should include) as well as style (the 'voice' or range of voices to use when addressing a non-academic audience). I also learned a lot about the ins and outs of the publishing world: what kinds of projects editors might be looking for, how to frame a project so that it appeals to editors, how to think more in terms of promotion and sales.”