R. Jay Magill is an independent scholar, journalist, and illustrator living in Berlin, where he works for the American Academy as a writer, editor, and host of a radio program on NPR Worldwide.

Magill holds a PhD in American studies from the University of Hamburg and an MA in art history and philosophy from SUNY-Stony Brook, and he has taught at the University of Lüneburg and at Harvard University, where he received a Derek Bok award. He has served as an executive editor and staff writer at DoubleTake magazine and has written for, among other publications, the American Prospect, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Print, Spiegel Online, and the Boston Globe. Magill's illustrations have appeared in a variety of books and magazines, including The Believer, and since 2005 he has been a staff illustrator at the political bimonthly The American Interest.

Magill is the author of Chic Ironic Bitterness and Sincerity: How A Moral Ideal Born Five Hundred Years Ago Inspired Religious Wars, Modern Art, Hipster Chic, and the Curious Notion that We All Have Something to Say (No Matter How Dull).

A Philadelphia native, he lives with his wife and son in the Schöneberg neighborhood of Berlin.

Photo credit: Gunter Klötzer