Appointment of the FAS Dean of Humanities

[Summary: This message announces Marc Robinson as FAS Dean of Humanities beginning July 1, 2024. I am grateful to current Dean of Humanities Kathryn Lofton for her leadership, and to the members of the FAS Humanities Dean Search Advisory Committee for their consultation and advice.]

To: FAS faculty and staff 
Cc: FAS Dean’s Office, FAS Steering, Provost’s Office, President’s Office, University Cabinet, GSAS Dean’s Office, Yale College Dean’s Office, Office of Public Affairs and Communication, Office of Faculty Administrative Services

Dear colleagues,

I write today with an exciting update on leadership in the FAS Division of Humanities.

I am delighted to announce that Marc Robinson, Malcolm G. Chace ‘56 Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and English and Professor of American Studies in the FAS; and Professor in the Practice of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the David Geffen School of Drama, has accepted my invitation to serve as the FAS Dean of Humanities for a 5-year term, effective July 1, 2024, pending formal approval by the Yale Corporation.  

My thanks to Kathryn Lofton, current FAS Dean of Humanities, who will return to full-time teaching and research in the FAS when her term as Dean concludes on June 30, 2024. As I wrote in September, Katie oversaw a period of significant growth and change for the FAS Humanities division: during her term, 18 units moved into the newly renovated Humanities Quadrangle; faculty members articulated a vision for the future of graduate education in the humanities and advanced changes to practices and policies pertaining to instructional faculty; and new faculty members joined every academic unit in the Humanities. I am grateful to Katie for her leadership.

Marc Robinson is a noted scholar of drama and theater in the United States. He joined the Yale faculty as Assistant Professor Adjunct of Theater Studies and of Drama in 1993 and was appointed Professor of Theater Studies and of English in 2005. Marc was the Director of Theater Studies from 1993-2005, served as Chair of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies three times, and as Acting Chair of English in 2022-2023. In addition, Marc has served on numerous FAS- and University-wide bodies, including the University-wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct; the Whitney Humanities Center Executive Committee; the FAS Creative Arts Advisory Committee; the FAS COVID-19 Task Force on Studio-, Performance-, and Collection-based Teaching; and the Yale College Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid.  

Across his many publications, Marc narrates a definitive history of theater in the United States. He is the author of The Other American Drama and the award-winning The American Play: 1787-2000, and the editor of volumes of plays by noted playwrights David Greenspan and Adrienne Kennedy. He is completing a new book on avant-garde performance, American Performance in 1976, focusing on works by Meredith Monk, Robert Wilson, Adrienne Kennedy, Cecil Taylor, and the Wooster Group. Marc has held fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation, the New York Institute for the Humanities, and the MacDowell Colony, and he is the winner of a Lambda Literary Award, the George Jean Nathan Award in Dramatic Criticism, and numerous other prizes. At Yale, he mentors undergraduate and graduate students in English; Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; American Studies; and Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, and he teaches courses on theater history, dramatic literature, and criticism. He is also a sought-after lecturer and panelist at institutions in the United States and abroad.

I look forward to working with Marc to continue strengthening our outstanding humanities departments and programs, and to advance the initiatives, begun by his predecessors, Amy Hungerford and Katie Lofton, that build the FAS’s capacity across and beyond the humanities.

I am grateful to the members of the FAS Dean of Humanities Search Advisory Committee, particularly committee chair Joanne Meyerowitz, Arthur Unobskey Professor of History and American Studies, who met in Fall 2023. Their thoughtful recommendations led to the appointment of Marc as incoming Dean. They consulted with a broad range of faculty and staff from across the FAS and the university, and their guidance was not only instrumental to this appointment decision but also served to catalog the extraordinary work of so many of our faculty and the vibrancy of FAS humanities at Yale.

Warmest wishes,

Tamar

Tamar Szabó Gendler 
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy 
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science