He has been a member of the English Department since 1994, specializing in Renaissance literature, the history of rhetoric, and Mormon literature and criticism. He maintains two academic websites ("Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric", and "The Mormon Literature Database"). A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Gideon attended the University of Utah briefly before attending and graduating from Brigham Young University in 1989. At the University of Southern California he received an M.A. in English (1992), a Master of Professional Writing (MPW) degree (1995), and his Ph.D.(1994) in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature in 1994. He joined the BYU English Department faculty in 1994. He and his wife, Karen, reside in Springville, Utah with their four sons.