Deb Noel earned a B.A. in English from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1991) and a Ph.D. in American Literature, Rhetoric and Composition from The University of Georgia (2003). She has been teaching classes in composition, American literature, race and ethnicity in American literature, nineteenth century fiction, modern novel, women's literature and the short story at UVM since 2003.
Deb's research interests span American literature with a particular focus on nineteenth and twentieth century fiction and narratology. Her dissertation examines works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison with a special focus on fiction as historiography. More recent work applies "possible worlds" theory from narratological studies to the fiction of Junot Diaz and Judith Cofer.