Emily Auerbach is an award-winning professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also directs the UW Odyssey Project, a free, life-changing college humanities course for low-income adults. In addition, Auerbach co-hosts University of the Air, a one-hour program broadcast statewide on Sundays on Wisconsin Public Radio. University of the Air features interviews with faculty in a variety of disciplines. She also developed the "Courage to Write" series of radio documentaries and written guides on women writers.
Emily Auerbach reaches hundreds of thousands of nontraditional students through lectures and book discussions at public libraries, Elderhostels, prisons, retirement centers, schools, and service clubs as well as through courses taught through the mail and online. Over 4,000 people attended "Jane Austen in the 21st Century," a 40-event festival she directed for the UW Center for the Humanities. This interdisciplinary festival was honored with the 2001 Governor's Award in the Humanities. Emily Auerbach has received numerous other teaching, broadcasting, arts, and humanitarian awards for her work, including the Robert E. Gard Wisconsin Idea Foundation's Award of Excellence (1998), the Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award, the Underkofler Distinguished Teaching Award, the Bartell Arts Award, and the Ohio State Broadcasting Award.