Derek Hirst studied and held his first academic position at Cambridge before moving to Washington University in St Louis in 1975. He has taught (often in tandem with Steven Zwicker) and researched there, and on occasion chaired its History Department, ever since.
Steven Zwicker is Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities at Washington University, and a member of its English Department since 1969; he has held visiting appointments at Doshisha University in Kyoto and at the California Institute of Technology. Over the years, and often together with Derek Hirst, he has taught the literature and cultural history of early modern England.