Leitch was born in Orange, New Jersey,[citation needed] and educated at Columbia University, where in 1972 he graduated BA magna cum laude in English and Comparative Literature, and then at Yale University, where he became an MA in 1973 and a PhD in 1976.
[1] Leitch's first academic post was as assistant professor in the department of English at Yale, from 1976 to 1983.
He then had the same position at the department of English, University of Delaware, from 1983 to 1986, when he became an associate professor there.
[2] Times Higher Education reviewed Leitch's Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age (2014), noting his view that the assumptions made by Wikipedia's critics about accuracy and authority are themselves open to debate.
In the book, Leitch argues that Wikipedia is “an ideal instrument for probing the central assumptions behind liberal education”.