[1] In 1975, she received a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in dance from Sarah Lawrence College.
[1] It was ten years later that Desmond completed a graduate study in media theory, production, and criticism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[1] From 1975 to present day, Desmond's career in academia has spanned across many institutions and faculties.
[1] Her international teaching experience includes her time as an Otto Salgo Chair in American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary (2000), and a guest teacher in the American Studies Department at La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy (2016, 2018).
[1] The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has also awarded her the Arnold O. Beckman Award for Research (2018), granted her a tenured faculty Fellowship and Associate Appointment at the UIUC Centre for Advanced Study (2016), appointed her as an annual Faculty-Associate in Residence (2010-2011), and named her the Humanities Research Institute Faculty Scholar (2009-2010).