Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out.

He is now Visiting Professor at City University London. In an interview Michael Palin (his contemporary at Brasenose) credited Hewison with introducing him to the idea of earning a living by making people laugh and for pushing him into performing which Palin says he would never have done as he was too shy. For most of his professional life he has made a living as a freelance writer and curator and he has written for The Sunday Times since 1981.

Among his academic appointments he was Visiting Professor at De Montfort University from 1993 until 1995; he then held a number of appointments at the University of Lancaster as Professor in Literary and Cultural Studies (1995–2000) part-time Professor in the Department of English (2001) and Honorary Professor (2002). He was Slade Professor of Fine Art in the University of Oxford 1999/2000 lecturing on the subject 'Ruskin To-day'. Robert Alwyn Petrie Hewison (born 2 June 1943) is a British cultural historian.