Duncan is an Affiliated Fellow of the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College and holds a D.Phil in English from the University of Oxford, an MA from University College London and BA from Cambridge University. He moved to the United States in the summer of 2012 after a decade working as a journalist in the United Kingdom, and lives with his family in Arlington, MA. He has written a book about the American-Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov and is in the middle of writing another about the literary history of the Cold War. He also works as a book critic for The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK.
Duncan comes from a family of teachers: both his parents and his brothers have worked in the profession. He was trained to teach in the Oxford tutorial system, working with students one-on-one on a wide range of courses. Duncan particularly enjoyed working with students on their undergraduate dissertations and coursework, helping them gain the confidence and skills needed to research and write papers of the highest calibre.
Before moving to the United States, Duncan gained extensive experience as a private tutor in London, helping students with exam preparation and university applications. He also helped students for whom English is a second language or those who faced the challenge of learning disabilities.
While specializing in American literature of the twentieth century, Duncan has experience teaching American, British and Russian literature of all periods and is also an enthusiastic and effective writing coach.
