Es Distinguished Professor de Inglés en Lancaster, Notre Dame y la Universidad Nacional de Irlanda. Sus últimos libros son Why Marx Was Right (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2012), How to Read Literature (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2013), Culture and the Death of God (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2014), Hope Without Optimism (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2015) y Culture (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016).