Dear FAS community,
It is with true excitement that I write to announce the appointment of Sean D. Kelly, the Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy, as the next Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities. His tenure in this role will begin on July 1.
Sean’s work focuses on various aspects of the philosophical, phenomenological, and cognitive neuroscientific nature of human existence. He explores fundamental questions such as, “What is the proper dignity of human being?” and “What makes possible lives of significance and worth?” In so doing, he puts himself in conversation with thinkers across time and disciplines, engaging distinctions and frameworks in different domains of knowledge to identify the foundations on which one can build a life. His teaching and research are capacious and boundary-crossing, with recent courses delving into literature, painting, film, and music, in addition to writings of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century French and German philosophical figures.
Sean will tell you that he approaches the humanities with the fervor of a convert. He came to the humanities somewhat late. As a doctoral student at the University of California Berkeley, he pursued the study of model theory and set theory in the math department. But teaching phenomenology and philosophy of mind in the philosophy department at Berkeley would set him on his life’s path. After taking some time to study languages, he transferred to the doctoral program in philosophy, where he discovered a discipline with its own kind of precision – the promise of speaking to broad questions like the character of human being, the nature of knowledge, and the possibility of transcendence.
Throughout his career, Sean has sought to bring people together across a broad range of academic backgrounds to advance teaching and learning for the benefit of all. He is as comfortable talking with mathematicians, computer scientists, psychologists, historians, and sociologists, as with classicists, philosophers, literary theorists, and poets. It may not be surprising that Sean has taught and studied across all three FAS Divisions and SEAS, giving him the opportunity to work across an unusually broad range of methods and priorities. He was the first philosopher at Harvard since William James to have had a psychology lab and, as co-director of the Standing Committee on Mind, Brain, and Behavior, helped to nurture a University-wide academic community aimed at understanding the brain in a broad disciplinary context of human behavior, genetics, culture, and society.
Sean’s perspective has been sought on a range of FAS and University issues, and he is known for his deeply collaborative and inclusive leadership style, as well as his ability to build community around issues of genuine significance. Sean chaired the FAS committee that reviewed the College’s General Education program, which, through engaging faculty and students, resulted in a fundamental restructuring of the program. He served on the Presidential Committee to Review College Policies on Mental Health and Community Policing, as well as the Presidential Search Committee for the new Chief of the Harvard University Police Department. Currently, he serves as the chair of the FAS committee charged to review the request to de-name Winthrop House.
Sean has also contributed in important ways to Divisional initiatives. He co-chaired the Harvard Humanities Project, which issued a report outlining a new vision for teaching the humanities at Harvard. And, during the current Arts and Humanities strategic planning process, he chaired the Dean’s Study Group on Administrative Support, work that has guided new investment in support infrastructure for the Division.
Before joining Harvard in 2006, he taught in Philosophy and the Humanities at Stanford and in Philosophy and Neuroscience at Princeton. In 2021, he was named a Harvard College Professor in recognition of his dedication and distinction in undergraduate teaching. In addition to being a member of the Philosophy Department, Sean is an affiliate of the Center for European Studies and of the German Languages and Literatures Department. Together with his wife, Cheryl Chen, he is Faculty Dean of Dunster House.
I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the many faculty, staff, and students who shared their insights as part of this process. I learned so much, not only about your hopes for the next dean, but also about the nature of humanistic inquiry. I have deeply valued those conversations, which started in my earliest days as dean.
I also want to express my sincere gratitude to Robin Kelsey, who has served with distinction as Dean for Arts and Humanities for eight years. During his tenure, Robin has championed the many ways in which the humanities bring essential perspectives to the most pressing issues of our time. He has also been a leading voice for the arts in the academy, creating new ways to bring artists and writers into purposeful engagement within the Harvard community. In leading the Division, he has explored its past and present, and imagined its future, opening the way for continued dialogue about the role of arts and humanities in the FAS, at Harvard, and throughout society.
I could not be more delighted to welcome Sean into this new role and to have his partnership in advancing the extraordinary possibilities of our academic community.
Sincerely,
Hopi Hoekstra
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
C. Y. Chan Professor of Arts and Sciences
Xiaomeng Tong and Yu Chen Professor of Life Sciences