The message below was sent to FAS faculty on May 30, 2019.
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Dear FAS Colleagues,
I write with the bittersweet news that Amy Hungerford will be stepping down from her role as FAS Dean of the Humanities on July 1, in anticipation of her appointment as Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. During the fall semester of 2019, Amy will remain on the Yale faculty and will complete her work on the University Humanities Strategy Committee, in addition to assisting in the transition to an interim dean. She will begin her position at Columbia on January 1, 2020.
Since Amy arrived at Yale as an assistant professor in 1999, she has served in a range of leadership roles. In her early years at Yale, she served as director of undergraduate studies in English and was a member of the pivotal Committee on Yale College Education, which revised the undergraduate curriculum in 2003. In 2008 her popular lecture course The American Novel Since 1945 was made available to the world through the Open Yale courses initiative, where students still find it today. After earning tenure, she served as acting master of Calhoun College (now Grace Hopper College), master of Morse College, and chair of the Council of Masters, before joining the FAS Dean’s Office in 2014. During her time as the inaugural dean of the humanities, Amy has defined this administrative role with discipline, integrity, and a profound commitment to equity. She led the review and revision of the FASTAP 2007 tenure and promotion policies, focusing on increased transparency and intellectual rigor while developing FASTAP 2016. She guided the plan for the renovation and reconceptualization of 320 York as a hub for humanities scholarship, teaching, and collaboration. She has headed the University Humanities Strategy Committee and with that committee will present a strategic plan for the humanities this fall. In addition to these major initiatives, Amy has also provided steady guidance to the 23 programs and departments in the humanities through committed support of chair leadership, recruitment of new faculty, and the mentoring and retention of ladder faculty.
Even while performing her administrative duties, Amy has remained active as a scholar and teacher. Her most recent book, Making Literature Now (Stanford), was published in 2016, as was her edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Literature Since 1945. These accomplishments join her long record of achievement, which also includes two other books: Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960 (Princeton) and The Holocaust of Texts: Genocide, Literature, and Personification (Chicago). Throughout her 20 years at Yale and a decade of summers teaching at the prestigious Bread Loaf School of English, Amy has also been consistently devoted to undergraduate teaching and the mentoring of graduate students.
When we return to campus this fall, I will appoint a faculty committee who will advise me on appointing a long-term replacement for Amy as FAS Dean of Humanities. In the meantime, I am pleased to report that Kathryn Lofton, Professor of American Studies, Religious Studies, History and Divinity, has agreed to serve as Acting FAS Dean of the Humanities during the 2019-20 academic year, pending Corporation approval. Katie has served in many leadership roles at Yale. She was the Deputy Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in the FAS; she served as a member of the FAS Senate and chaired the University-Wide Ad Hoc Committee on Procedures for Resolving Complaints of Faculty Misconduct; she has also served as Chair of LGBT Studies, the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Department of Religious Studies. I am grateful that Katie has agreed to continue serving as Chair of Religious Studies while also serving as acting dean.
We will celebrate all that Amy has accomplished and congratulate her on her new role at a gathering this fall. Amy has been a leader of incomparable ethical discernment, and I will miss her far-sighted counsel and institutional wisdom. We have been fortunate to have her as a colleague here at Yale for the past two decades.
Yours,
Tamar
Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science
Yale University