She is the Ann Fetter Friedlaender Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and past president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Perry studied at Cornell University, double majoring in English and Social Psychology, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude in 1963.
[3] Perry conducts research on 18th century English literature and the role of socio-economic foundations in women's authorship.
Perry has received a variety of grants, awards, and research funding, including a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (1964).
She has also raised money singing for various political causes over the years: miners’ strikes in Kentucky, progressive candidates, anti-nuclear rallies, civil rights workers, musical instruments for school children in the Bahamas.
In 1965, she made a record with her folk group, “The North Quarry Street Irregulars” to raise money for the voter registration drive in Fayette County, Tennessee.