[1] He is currently the CEO and executive director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research,[2] as well as Visiting Alger Hiss Professor of History and Literature at Bard College.
[1][3] He is a writer, publisher, and teacher who has lectured around the world on subjects of Soviet and modern Jewish history.
From 1981-1991, Brent was editor-in-chief and director of the Northwestern University Press, where he established the series in East European and Russian literature.
[2] In 1981, Brent founded the literary magazine Formations,[1][3] which specialized in East European writing and thought.
[2] In 2014, with the cooperation of the government of the Republic of Lithuania Brent established the landmark Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project at The YIVO Institute to preserve and digitize approximately 2.5 million documents and 12,200 books representing 500 years of Jewish history in Eastern Europe and Russia.