Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Princeton Humanities Initiative! Established in 2024 after a two-year planning process led by Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English Gene Jarrett, the initiative supports innovative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative humanities-centered research, teaching, and community engagement while also serving as a multi-year bridge to the foundation of a Humanities Institute at Princeton. 

This spring the initiative will support film screenings, public lectures, symposia, and workshops. (For more information, see the Events page.) Under development are collaborations with Princeton’s Program in Journalism; the Center for Culture, Society and Religion; the Princeton University Art Museum; the Lewis Center for the Arts; the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies; the Program in Medieval Studies; the Prison Teaching Initiative; the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities; the Office of the Dean of the College; the Council on Science and Technology; and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.

Much of the initiative’s work so far has focused on building partnerships with people and organizations beyond Princeton’s campus. Already underway, for example, are collaborations with the Princeton Public Schools, Art against Racism, the Princeton Arts Council, and Morven Museum and Garden. In partnership with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the New Jersey Council for County Colleges, and the McGraw Center’s Program for Community College Engagement, in April the initiative will convene faculty and administrators from New Jersey’s eighteen community colleges to discuss humanities curricula in higher education.

I joined the Princeton community in 2005 as an assistant professor. Over the past twenty years, I have had the privilege of collaborating with faculty, students, and staff from a wide range of departments and disciplines. This work has underscored for me how necessary the humanities are for addressing some of the greatest challenges of our time and for figuring out how to create and sustain the conditions for all people to thrive. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to build on and amplify Princeton’s commitment to and advocacy for the humanities, and I look forward to working with all of you in the years to come. 

Warmly,

Rachael Z. DeLue, Director

Christopher Binyon Sarofim ’86 Professor in American Art
Department of Art & Archaeology + Effron Center for the Study of America