Division of Humanities
Knowledge from antiquity to the present
The faculty of the FAS Humanities division cover an expansive intellectual terrain. They are experts in history, literature, language, philosophy, and the arts. Their work asks who we are and what we might become as they make new discoveries about the past and present that will shape the future of human culture. Through collaboration, research, and teaching, they initiate conversations around the most pressing questions that humankind has addressed from antiquity to the present.
The divisional dean of the Humanities is Marc Robinson.
Humanities departments and programs
The FAS's 20+ humanities units cover the range of human knowledge: from English to Classics; from History of Art to Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; from the world's languages and literatures to History. In addition, several programs are cross-divisional, bridging Humanities and Social Science.
News
New Chaucer Society Awards Marcel Elias with Publication Prize
The prize recognized Assistant Professor of English Marcel Elias's "English Literature and the Crusades: Anxieties of Holy War, 1291-1453" as Best First Monograph on a topic dealing with late-medieval literature published in 2024 or 2025.
Marta Figlerowicz wins 2026 MSA Translation Prize
A translation by Marta Figlerowicz, Professor of Comparative Literature, has received the 2026 Modernist Studies Association Translation Prize for "The Bad Child: A Maria Janion Reader," a collection exploring nationalism, identity, and cultural history through the writings of Polish intellectual Maria Janion.
FAS New Faculty Spotlight: Vincent Brown
For our new faculty spotlight series, we asked incoming FAS faculty member Vincent Brown, David Brion Davis Professor of History about their teaching, field of research, and thoughts on joining Yale.
Two FAS Faculty Awarded Fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study
Jessica Lamont, Associate Professor of Classics, and David Knight, Assistant Professor of Black Studies and Sociology, were recently awarded fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in the for the 2026-27 academic year.
Becoming better thinkers through art and culture
How does architecture affect the way we live? Does it influence our health and our healing? Fatima Naqvi, the Elias W. Leavenworth Professor of German and Film Studies in the FAS, explores these questions in her new book. She looks at how writers and directors portray the architecture of hospitals and describe their experience from the 1880s to the present. Naqvi’s scholarship lies at the intersection of architecture, literature, and film. She argues that by experiencing culture and the arts, we become better thinkers in ways that are difficult to quantify but nevertheless profound.
FAS Humanities contacts
- FAS Dean of Humanities; Malcolm G. Chace '56 Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and of English; Professor of American Studies; Professor in the Practice of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism
- FAS Dean's Office
- Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (Program)
- English
- American Studies (Program)
- Senior Associate Dean; Dean of Faculty Affairs
- FAS Dean's Office