Duncan Wu came to Georgetown in 2008.

He began his career as Fellow by Special Election at St Catherine's College, Oxford, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the British Academy, in 1991. In 1995 he was appointed Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where he became Professor of Romantic Studies in 1999. In 2000 he was appointed University Lecturer in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and Tutorial Fellow in English at St Catherine's College. Three years later he was made Professor of English Language and Literature by the English Faculty at Oxford. In 2004 he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust. Nearly four years later, in January 2008, he left Oxford and came to Georgetown as Professor of English.

He has authored or edited a number of books including Romanticism: An Anthology (three editions, 1994, 1998, 2007); A Companion to Romanticism (1998); Wordsworth's Reading 1770-1815 (2 vols., 1993, 1995); Wordsworth: An Inner Life (2000); Selected Writings of William Hazlitt (9 vols., 1998); and Making Plays: Interviews with Contemporary British Playwrights and Directors (2000). In recent years he has written for The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Independent, among other newspapers. He is on the editorial boards of The Charles Lamb Bulletin and Romanticism on the Net, and is one of the co-editors of the scholarly journal Notes and Queries, published by Oxford University Press. He writes film reviews for Times Higher Education in London.

He is Vice-Chairman of The Charles Lamb Society and The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, a founder member and former Chairman of The Hazlitt Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Teaching, he believes, is the most important part of his job, and he hugely enjoys the challenge of teaching at Georgetown.