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School of Architecture 2024–2025

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History and Theory Track

Admission requirements.

Applicants must have a master’s degree or equivalent in  architecture, urban planning, environmental design,  or, exceptionally, a related  field.  Two years of professional work in an architecture office are recommended. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test taken no more than five years prior to application is required. All applicants whose native language is not English are  also  required to take the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT), which includes a section on spoken English. The TOEFL requirement may be waived only for applicants who, prior to matriculation at Yale, will have received a baccalaureate degree or its international equivalent from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction. Applicants must have studied in residence at the baccalaureate institution for at least three years to receive the waiver. A waiver will not be granted on the basis of an advanced degree (such as M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.) from another institution.

In addition to meeting  the  qualifying criteria, candidates are required as part of  the  application to submit a portfolio of their own architectural  work,  a writing sample in the form of a substantial research paper or  publication,  and an explanation of their motivation for engaging in their chosen course of study.  Qualified applicants may be invited to interview with a member of the doctoral faculty.

The portfolio should be a well-edited representation of the applicant’s creative work.   Portfolios may not contain videos.   Anything submitted that is not entirely the applicant’s own work must be clearly identified as such.   The portfolio is submitted digitally as a single  PDF   document optimized not to exceed  20 Mb   and will need to be uploaded as part of the online application.   Pages of the pdf portfolio should be uploaded as spreads.   The digital portfolio will be viewed on computer screens, so resolution above 150 dpi is not necessary.

Admission to the Ph.D.   program in Architecture is administered by the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.   For  general  questions regarding  admissions,  please contact   [email protected] .

The Application Process

The online application can be accessed at   http://gsas.yale.edu/admission   when it is available.   Applications for   the  program beginning in   the  2025–2026   academic  year must be submitted no later than January 2, 2025.   Applicants will not be allowed to submit applications after the deadline has passed.

Track Requirements

Students   are required to  be full-time   and  in residence in the New Haven area during   their  first three academic years.   Students may  be asked   to  attend summer orientation courses before   their  first term.   (See Degree Requirements under Policies and Regulations   in  the Bulletin   of  the Graduate School of Arts   and  Sciences.) 

During the first two years,   students engage in a concerted course of study that leads directly to  work on the dissertation.   In all, they are required to take twelve graduate-level seminars for credit.   These   include a Ph.D.   seminar taught in each of the  first two   terms by a  standing or visiting faculty  member of the School of  Architecture.   The Ph.D.   seminars,  ARCH 551  and  ARCH 552 , constitute the program’s methodological foundation and introduce students to an array of historiographic approaches and areas of study.   While the content of the two seminars varies from year to year, they tend to involve primary research on a specific topic, a survey of critical approaches, or the reading of a body of texts.

For purposes of fulfilling   their  remaining course requirements, students are encouraged to take one or more courses   outside the School of  Architecture that are related to their specific area of interest.   For example, a student working on   architecture in  Brazil   would  likely   take  courses   in  Latin American   history  and   culture.   Students may also opt to do independent readings with individual faculty in their area. 

Not later than the end of  the   second year, students   are expected to demonstrate competence in at least one foreign language relevant to their  field of   study.   Language competence is more than a formality and requires some acquaintance with literature in the chosen  language; competency may be demonstrated by a grade of B or better in a full-year intermediate-level language course or through examination.   By   the   end of the second year,   all course and language requirements are normally  completed, and the student’s field of interest is defined.   At this  point   the director of doctoral studies (DDS)  works with   the student  to identify  a thesis adviser, who may or may not be from the School of  Architecture. 

In   the fall term of the third year, students  are required to take   oral examinations on  three  topics   relevant  to   their  field   of  doctoral research.   The three field exams are administered by the thesis adviser and two additional examiners selected by the student.   Following  their  successful  completion,   the   DDS, in consultation with the student’s  principal  adviser, appoints  the student’s   dissertation  committee, which consists of   the  student’s principal adviser plus two additional faculty members.   It is typical for one of the dissertation committee members to come from outside the School of Architecture, with selection based on the student’s area of  interest.

At the end of the third year or, at latest, the beginning of the fourth, students are expected to defend their dissertation prospectus, a preliminary proposal of their dissertation topic.   The prospectus  comprises   a  description of the topic,   an outline of a detailed program of research, and an annotated bibliography.   Upon passing all pre-dissertation requirements including the field exams and prospectus defense, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.   and are “ABD” (all but dissertation).   At this point, they embark on their dissertation research and writing, submitting drafts of the dissertation chapters as they are completed.   The dissertation committee guides and monitors the student’s progress through the course of writing and evaluates the dissertation upon completion.

The Ph.D.   program is designed to be completed in five years.   However, if the dissertation has not been completed by the end of the fifth year and if, at that time, the program certifies that the candidate will complete the dissertation by August of the following academic year, the candidate may be eligible to take a teaching position in the School of Architecture or elsewhere in the University and extend funding for up to an additional nine months.

Graduate Research Assistant and Teaching Fellow Experience

Teaching is an important part of  the doctoral program in History and Theory of Architecture.   Students in the program are expected to teach or serve as research assistants for four terms, normally in their third and fourth years.   During these four terms, it is anticipated that a student in the History and Theory track will teach in two survey courses in the student’s area of study at the School of Architecture or elsewhere in the university and teach in two design studios at the School of Architecture.   All teaching assignments are carried out under the direct supervision of senior faculty.

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Yale University

Admissions Snapshot

19% First-generation students in Class of 2024

53 Countries represented by members of the Class of 2024

6.6% Rate of admissions, Class of 2024

$55,100 Average grant of undergraduate financial aid

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Applications are open to become an ISM student

Tuition and financial aid.

Learn about all the financial aspects of studying at the ISM, including the full-tuition scholarships offered to admitted students.

In 2024–2025, tuition for full-time students is as follows: 

• School of Music and the Institute will be $36,800. 
• Divinity School and the Institute will be $28,810. 

Other special fees may be assessed, depending on program (orientation, commencement, board, and activity fees, etc.). Further information is available from the Financial Aid Office.

Full-tuition scholarships are available to ISM students. The amount is based on tuition established by the two affiliated schools. 

Financial Aid

Full-tuition scholarships are available to ISM students to support fulfillment of their degree requirements. Additional annual merit awards of $4,000-12,000 are available to eligible ISM students. Depending on the resources of the Institute, these scholarships and awards are renewable for students who remain in good academic standing. These scholarships and awards require no application or service to the Institute.

By the beginning of their final term, students must have completed all ISM curricular requirements or be enrolled in the remaining required courses. Failure to do so will result in termination of all ISM financial aid in the final term.

Requirements for Financial Aid

Satisfactory academic progress (sap).

Federal regulations mandate that an institution establish a reasonable SAP policy for determining whether an otherwise eligible student is making satisfactory academic progress in his or her educational program and may receive assistance under the Title IV, HEA programs, and institutional financial aid (referred to as financial aid).

The time limits for the degree programs pursued by ISM students are published in the bulletins of the respective schools. Student grades are reviewed each term to determine whether each student is making SAP. Failure to make SAP may affect the continuing of ISM financial aid.

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents

U.S. citizens and permanent residents may also apply for federal loans and work-study, which are awarded on the basis of need as determined by federal methodology. The Institute of Sacred Music participates in the Federal Direct Loan program. To apply for a federal student loan or federal work study, students must complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

A Federal Direct Student Loan is available as an unsubsidized loan only for graduate and professional students. Loan fees may change based on funding uncertainty at the federal level. The maximum the student can borrow through a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan is $20,500. The student bears the responsibility for interest on the unsubsidized loan, which may be paid as it accrues or capitalized (added to principal). Additional eligibility requirements: (1) the student must be enrolled at least half-time; (2) he or she must maintain satisfactory academic progress; and (3) he or she cannot be in default on a federal student loan.

A Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan is for students who need to borrow more than the maximum unsubsidized loan amount, not to exceed the cost of education. Loan fees may change based on funding uncertainty at the federal level. The interest, which accrues while the student is in school, may either be paid monthly or capitalized. Additional eligibility requirements: (1) the student must not be in default on any federal education loans or owe an overpayment on a federal education loan or owe an overpayment on a federal education grant, and must meet other general eligibility requirements for the Federal Student Aid programs; and (2) the student must not have an adverse credit history, as determined by a credit check.

Updated information about current interest rates and origination fees can be found at  http://www.yale.edu/sfas/finaid/graduate-and-professional-students/gradstudentloaninfo.html .

An application must be made each year to renew the Federal Direct Loan. Laws governing these loans are under frequent review by the U.S. Congress. Applicants should be aware that awards might need to be revised if major change is mandated by government regulations.

Federal eligibility may also be reviewed during the academic year if a student’s financial circumstances change substantially; additional scholarship or award support from the ISM is not available. Students must notify the Financial Aid Office of all additional awards or sources of support, such as that received from denominational agencies, outside grants and scholarships, and parental contributions.

International Students

International students also receive full-tuition scholarship awards and may be eligible for merit awards through the Institute of Sacred Music. No application is needed, nor is service to the Institute required to receive the scholarship or award. International students are not eligible to participate in U.S. government-funded loan programs unless they are permanent residents; therefore, every effort should be made to obtain financial assistance from the applicant’s government. Such assistance should be reported to the Institute’s Financial Aid Office. The Institute cannot subsidize transportation to and from the United States.

For detailed information about all aspects of financial aid, please contact the Ben Geertz  in the Financial Aid Office.

Financial Aid Links

Useful links that will help you finance and pay of your ISM education

• Yale Financial Aid Arrow Up Right (link is external)
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• Federal Student Aid Arrow Up Right (link is external)

Yale Institute of Sacred Music is a professional environment and, as such, encourages professional work. For example, Institute students are hired as musicians or in other areas of ministry in Yale’s chapels or area churches. Part-time positions abound in the libraries, dining halls, and various offices of the University. Nonetheless, the Institute does not encourage students to pursue outside work at the expense of their obligations to the Institute or their respective Schools. Students generally work between ten and fifteen hours a week (not to exceed nineteen hours per week). The Institute demands that students prepare for classes and rehearsals, attend them, and participate fully in the life of the Institute. Students shall submit requests to work outside the Institute (both for pay and not for pay) to their adviser with sufficient time to be reviewed by the director. This requirement includes any work in performances on and off campus. Forms can be obtained from the Office of Student Affairs.

Scholarships and Awards

Named scholarships.

The named scholarships are part of the Institute’s pool of resources. They honor students of exceptional promise and achievement in their field of study. The overall amount of the named scholar’s financial assistance is not affected. The Porter, MacLean, and Seder scholarships had their beginnings at the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary and were transferred to the Institute of Sacred Music upon its move to Yale University.

The Mary Baker Scholarship  The Mary Baker Scholarship in organ accompanying was established in 2005 to honor the memory of Mary Baker, wife of Dr. Robert Baker, founding director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The scholarship is awarded each year to a returning organ student who has demonstrated in the opinion of the faculty the ability and collaborative spirit necessary for a skilled organ accompanist.

The Robert Baker Scholarship  Robert Baker is the former director and dean of the School of Sacred Music at Union and the first director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. This scholarship is for an organ student completing his or her first year. The scholarship was established at Dr. Baker’s retirement.

The Reverend Louise H. MacLean Scholarship  An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Louise H. MacLean was a graduate of Union Seminary who admired the work of the School of Sacred Music at that institution. The scholarship is to be used for the benefit of worthy students.

The Menil Scholarship  A scholarship designated for a student concentrating in the visual arts. Monies are given by the Menil Foundation.

The Hugh Porter Scholarship  Director (1945–60), Union Seminary School of Sacred Music, Hugh Porter was a distinguished organ recitalist and organist at St. Nicholas Collegiate Church in New York and a highly respected teacher. This scholarship is undesignated.

The E. Stanley Seder Scholarship  Organist and choir director at People’s Church in Chicago, E. Stanley Seder also served as organist of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club, which met in Orchestra Hall. This scholarship is undesignated.

Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) Grants

Yale was awarded $4.7 million from the second round of awards from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF II) grants. Yale will award all of the $4.7 million, including the share that could have been applied to institutional expenses, as emergency grants to Yale students with exceptional financial need. More information about these grants can be found at heerfgrant.yale.edu .

HEERF II Appeals Process Now Open

Those students who did not receive a HEERF II grant in the first round may now appeal that decision. Students must have been enrolled in at least one semester in the 2020–2021 academic year, have received some form of financial aid (scholarship, grant, loan, or job) in the 2020–2021 academic year, and must have COVID-19 related expenses that were not covered by other forms of financial aid. In order to start the appeals process, students need to contact their school’s financial aid office. The student’s financial aid officer will determine if they are eligible to appeal and will enable them to complete the online appeals application. Final eligibility determinations will be made by the HEERF Working Group. Appeals will be reviewed in the order they are received. HEERF II appeal funds are limited and completing an application for an appeal does not guarantee the receipt of funding. The deadline for submitting an appeal is July 22, 2021.

Special Awards for Music Students

The named awards will be given to first-year music students in addition to the usual scholarship awards, and will be renewable for a second year if progress is satisfactory.

The Baker Award  Named in honor of Professor Emeritus Robert Baker, the award is given to one or more students deemed to be among the top 1 or 2 percent of the young organists in the country and who have elected to study at the Yale School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music.

The French Award  The award, named in honor of Professor Richard French, is given to one or more choral conducting students, deemed among the best in the country, who attend the Yale School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music.

Fifth Semester for Church Music Certificate Course

Participants enroll as nondegree students for the fifth semester at the Yale Divinity School and receive a full-tuition scholarship. However, they are not eligible for Federal Direct or Graduate PLUS loans. They are eligible for alternative loans. Nondegree students are not eligible for deferral of loans. International students may need to apply for an extension of their student visas.

Special Awards for Divinity Students

Special awards are also available for Divinity students selected by the faculty. The Institute is especially interested in students who demonstrate a lively interest in cross-disciplinary interaction and study.

Special Support for Students

The Institute of Sacred Music may provide limited financial support in the form of grants for student participation in competitions, professional events, summer language study, and Colloquium presentation expenses. Interested students should first consult the ISM Office of Student Affairs to ascertain the specific grants for which they are eligible. All requests must be made in advance, using the ISM Student Grant Request form, and approved by the faculty and director of the Institute. Guidelines for support may be obtained from the financial aid officer.

The Institute also underwrites the Yale Schola Cantorum, whose members receive payment for participation except if receiving academic credit for participation. Link to Performing Ensembles

Leave of Absence

For the policies regarding leaves of absence, including the U.S. military leave readmissions policy, Institute students should consult the bulletin of the professional School, Music or Divinity, in which they are enrolled, as well as the Director of the Institute.

Our Partners

ISM partners prepare students for careers in church music and other sacred music.

• Yale School of Music Arrow Up Right (link is external)
• Yale Divinity School Arrow Up Right (link is external)
• Yale University Arrow Up Right (link is external)

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MD-PhD Program

The Program's full-time faculty are members of the Department of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the Section of History of Medicine in the School of Medicine. The Program also benefits from the active participation of other History faculty members as well as faculty of other departments. The Program offers opportunities for students to pursue degrees in concentrations that span the full range of the history of science and history of medicine, from antiquity to modern times. The broad interests of its faculty provide special opportunities to cross the boundaries between these two fields, with emphasis on the biomedical sciences and their connections both with medical practices and the physical sciences.

The Yale Program aims to sustain an integrative, eclectic response to methodological issues that have been intensely debated in recent years. It equips students with a critical appreciation of the diverse approaches now practiced in the history of science and medicine. It offers training in the close reading of texts, instruments, artifacts, and analysis of ideas and practices, and instruction in social, cultural, political and economic modes of interpretation. The Program fosters consideration of the interplay between science and technology as well as between biomedical knowledge and the clinic. It urges students to enrich their professional preparation by drawing on other disciplines including cultural studies, philosophy, and the contemporary natural and social sciences. In all, historiographic pluralism is a hallmark of the Yale Program. Special advantages offered by the program include library resources that are among the best in North America.

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Department of the History of Art

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Applications for admission to the department’s graduate program are reviewed by a faculty committee chaired by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). This committee makes recommendations about admission to the University Graduate School  on the basis of perceived merit and fit with the current configuration of faculty and students; it does not take into account information concerning financial circumstances. In light of the department’s recommendations, the Dean of the Graduate School gives the final approval to the admissions decisions. 

The number of admissions that may be offered is determined by the department’s facilities and the Graduate School’s resources. The number of applications has risen in recent years, and admission is offered only to about ten percent of applicants. Many well-qualified applicants may not receive admission, but are certainly welcome to reapply.

Applicants are required to submit a term paper or other writing sample. This should not exceed 20 pages and should demonstrate the applicant’s capacity for scholarly research in his or her main area of interest. It may include a few photos or brief bibliography, if necessary, but the true purpose of the paper is to showcase the student’s writing skills. The committee weighs the application materials with various points in mind. The statement of purpose (500-1000 words) is an especially weighty component, serving as a concise introduction to the applicant’s major area(s) of interest, academic (or other relevant) experience, aims for future research and professional life, and vision of how he or she will mesh with the program. GRE scores are no longer necessary for the application process. In the transcript, attention is given mainly to the art history courses, noting their number, variety, and grades. It is not a prerequisite for this program that the applicant has been a formal art history major in college.

Yale has a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs in which the art history department plays an important role, including African and African-American Studies, American Studies, East Asian Studies, Film and Media Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies. When the History of Art admissions committee has finished its work, applications not included in the accepted group may be reviewed by appropriate faculty members and transferred to the application pool of one of the above programs. If the admissions committee in that program agrees, the student is then asked whether he or she would like such a transfer to take place. As a result, a number of students in recent years have been pleased to accept offers of admission to these Yale programs. Some of these programs are for the MA only, and their graduates may then apply to continue to the Ph.D. in art history; others are for the doctorate itself.

If you are interested in applying to Yale, you may wish to visit our campus to meet with faculty members, attend classes, and/or speak with current students. If so, please contact   individual professors and  graduate students   directly via e-mail to arrange your own schedule. Because the application deadline is December 1st, such visits should take place in the fall semester. There is of course no requirement that applicants visit campus in advance. Even complex questions can be answered via e-mail, and you might also ask faculty members if they are willing to meet virtually, via Zoom or telephone. Once the department has extended its offers to successful applicants, a visiting day is arranged for the new cohort, so that they can get to know the faculty, students, and resources in greater depth.

In choosing where to apply (or where to go, when accepted by several schools), students rightly put stress on the fields of art history covered and on the known quality of the faculty in a given program. You can get a sense of what we teach and publish by reviewing our faculty web pages , and reading some of the materials your prospective teachers and advisors have written. You are welcome to contact them with questions about their teaching plans in the coming years, and to contact the DGS with any additional questions about the application process.

All questions regarding the general completion or submission of the application should be directed to the Yale GSAS Admissions .

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Simultaneous B.A./M.A. Degree

It is possible to complete a simultaneous B.A./M.A. degree in East Asian Studies, but it is a very demanding process. By pursuing a simultaneous bachelor’s and master’s degrees in East Asian Studies, a student is extending his or her undergraduate program into the graduate level of study. Study at this level is demanding. It requires significant preparation before entering the program and a high degree of dedication on the part of students who must be able to complete advanced courses while meeting the general requirements for graduation from Yale College.

To succeed in the program, students must progress steadily from undergraduate- to graduate- level research and writing. Thus, while students may not concentrate all of their graduate-level coursework in the final year, they are expected to complete certain foundational work before enrolling in classes at the graduate level. For the same reason, students’ work in graduate-level classes is expected to display more sophistication in linguistic and analytical skills than expected for undergraduate courses. Only those students who have reached advanced levels of language study in Chinese or Japanese early in their careers at Yale and have completed coursework that qualifies them to gain admission to graduate courses in the area(s) of their disciplinary concentration within East Asian Studies (e.g., Chinese or Japanese literature, History, History of Art, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, or Sociology) by the junior year should consider applying for the simultaneous degree.

To be eligible for the simultaneous award of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, applicants must by the end of their fifth term of enrollment have achieved at least two-thirds A or A– grades in all of their course credits as well as in all of the course credits directly relating to their major.

While the formal proposal to pursue simultaneous degrees is due by the last day of classes in their fifth term of enrollment in Yale College, he or she should begin consulting with the East Asian Studies Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) and the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) during the sophomore year and must begin developing a formal proposal during the fall of the junior year. If the DUS and DGS approve the proposal, it is forwarded to the Yale College Dean’s Office, where a joint committee of Yale College and the Graduate School acts upon the department’s nomination and notifies the student of acceptance into the program. Proposals must meet all of the requirements outlined in  YCPS  regarding academic achievement and the pattern of enrollment in graduate courses.

General requirements

Graduate work must not be entirely concentrated in the final two terms, and students in the program must take at least six term courses outside the major during their last four terms at Yale and at least two undergraduate courses during their last two terms. 

Students may not enroll in Yale College for more than eight terms in order to qualify for the simultaneous award of both degrees. It is possible to earn both degrees in fewer than eight terms, but not by the use of acceleration credits. Upon acceptance into the program, a student who has accelerated by the use of acceleration credits will automatically be decelerated, and may not, so long as the student remains in the simultaneous degree program, subsequently employ the credits to accelerate.

Number of courses required

In addition to the normal requirements for the B.A. in East Asian Studies published in  Yale College Programs of Study (YCPS) , students must complete eight graduate-level courses with grades of A in at least two term courses (or in one year course) and with a B average in the remaining ones.

Students enrolling in a course that carries both an undergraduate and a graduate number must do so under the undergraduate number. Students planning to apply to the program who enroll in such a course may request the permission of the instructor to complete the graduate-level requirements of the course and petition to have it converted to the graduate number on the academic record if they are subsequently admitted to the program. The petition, which is made to the director of the program, must be accompanied by certification that the course instructor has approved the student’s proposal to complete the course at its graduate level.

Language study requirements for application

Students must complete the equivalent of the third year of study of modern Chinese, Japanese, or Korean by the end of the summer of their sophomore year in order to be eligible to apply for the simultaneous B.A. and M.A. degrees.

Approval of course schedules

Following notification that they have been accepted into the Program for the Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, students must have their course schedules approved each term both by the director of undergraduate studies and by the director of graduate studies.

Courses counted toward both the B.A. and M.A. degrees

Students may count up to two courses toward fulfillment of both the undergraduate and graduate portions of the requirements for the simultaneous degree.

Up to two term courses in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language numbered above 150 may be counted toward the eight graduate courses required

This includes literary Chinese or Japanese. ( The Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures language courses are no longer double-numbered, except for courses in literary Chinese and Japanese .)

Directed Readings

Directed Reading courses (usually numbered 900 in the departments in which they are offered) are not intended to substitute for graduate seminars in meeting the graduate portion of the requirements. These courses may only be used to fulfill the graduate requirements when staffing conditions, such as faculty leaves, limit the number (not the topic) of graduate seminars available to students pursuing the simultaneous degree.

Additional requirements and expectations

Students electing to fulfill the requirements of the simultaneous B.A./M.A. degree in East Asian Studies will be expected to fulfill the senior year requirement for the major by electing the senior essay option for the major (i.e., a one-term senior essay in EAST 480a or b or a one-credit, two-term, senior research project in EAST 491/492 culminating in an essay). However, a graduate seminar that is not double-numbered and that requires a substantial research paper, taken in either term of the senior year, may count toward fulfillment of the senior requirement with permission of the DUS.

General Regulations for eligibility and the requirements for Simultaneous Award of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees can be found online  here .

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Faculty of Arts and Sciences

The philosophy and black studies pioneer returning to yale to foster a new generation of scholars.

By Michaela Herrmann

Every year, Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences hires dozens of exceptional scholars in academic departments across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. This series profiles six of the faculty joining the FAS in the 2024—25 academic year, highlighting their academic achievements, research ambitions, and the teaching they hope to do at Yale. Learn more about the incoming ladder faculty and m ulti-year instructional faculty joining the FAS .  

For philosopher Robert Gooding-Williams, returning to Yale as a professor represents not only a homecoming, but the opportunity to build an institutional legacy.    

“There was a personal bias towards coming back to Yale,” says Gooding-Williams, who received a 2023 Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association to recognize his exceptional scholarship. “But I think there is also an opportunity to use Yale as a vehicle to strengthen the place of the work I do within the discipline as a whole.”   

Gooding-Williams , who was an undergraduate (’75) and PhD (’82) student at Yale, joins the Department of Philosophy as Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Philosophy.    

“I have always loved, both as an undergrad and as a graduate student, the intellectual intensity and interdisciplinarity of Yale,” he reflects, fondly recalling dinners spent intensely debating philosophy and political science with his fellow undergrads in the dining hall of Trumbull College. “This is a late career move for me, but given that I had a connection to Yale, given that Yale formed me intellectually more than any other institution with which I’ve been affiliated,  it’s nice to be able to come back and to  contribute to Yale’s institutional formation.”

Building institutional support for scholars working at the intersection of P hilosophy and Black S tudies will be a major focus for Gooding-Williams. He hopes to foster a community of thinkers working at the crossroads of these intellectual traditions. “Yale has an absolutely terrific Philosophy department. It also has a terrific African American Studies  department, so one of the things I’m hoping to do is to create a combined PhD program for folks who want to do a joint PhD in Philosophy and African American Studies.”    

That kind of combined PhD program didn’t exist when he attended Yale, but Gooding-Williams says the landscape of philosophy has shifted significantly since then. “Professional philosophy and philosophers have become much more open to work at the intersection of Philosophy and Black Studies, and to work focusing on figures in the history of African American political thought,” he says, pointing out that studying the intellectual contributions of people like Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alexander Crummell, Anna Julia Cooper, Alain Locke, and Frantz Fanon is now considered both interesting and worthwhile.   

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that what the late Charles Mills once called ‘the whiteness of philosophy’—in terms of not only who’s teaching philosophy, but what gets taught—is a thing of the past ,” he explains. “But I would say that things are different. We’re at a point now where it’s important to continue to create sustained institutional space that supports and promotes that work, and I think that Yale has a great role to play.”   

Gooding-Wiliams himself deserves considerable credit for this evolution in his field. After establishing himself as a formidable Nietzsche scholar with his book Zarathustra’s Dionysian Modernism (2001, Stanford University Press), he pivoted, beginning to carv e out conceptual space for philosophical analyses of r ace and racism with his second book Look, A Negro!: Philosophical Essays on Race, Culture, and Politics (2005, Routledge). The essay collection examined the interplay of race and multiculturalism in the United States, and how race, class, gender, and sexuality interact to shape racial ideology.   

Gooding-Williams later published In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America (2009, Harvard University Press) . The work won a Best Book Award in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics from a section of the American Political Science Association for its philosophical examination of Du Bois’s writings on a politics that could uplift Black people in the Jim Crow era. In that book, he brings Du Bois’s work into dialogue with Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom to critically examine how their ideas continue to influence debates about Black identity and leadership in America.    

Gooding-Williams credits his own teachers at Yale with fanning his undergraduate interest in philosophy into the flame of a long, successful career. “I think the first time I read Du Bois in college was a course team-taught by a couple folks , including the philosopher Ben Ward, who had been a Yale Philosophy PhD student. There was also a junior faculty teacher named DW Crofts, and that was the first time I read Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction . That course was important to me because it was probably the one course I took that really exemplified the possibility of doing work at the intersection of P hilosophy and Black S tudies.”    

There’s no shortage of inspiring teachers and colleagues Gooding-Williams remembers learning from at Yale : Sam Savage, Seyla Benhabib , Ruth Marcus, Ed Casey, and Karsten Harries—as well as George Schrader and Heinrich von Staden, his dissertation advisors—and his graduate peers Kathy Higgins, Larry Vogel, and Judith Butler.    

Gooding-Williams plans to continue building upon the tradition his own teachers built, one he has continued through the years he spent at Simmons College, the University of Chi c ago, and his most recent position at Columbia. “In the spring semester I’m going to teach a graduate seminar called Political Philosophy and Race, and I’ll be bringing in lots of other philosophers who are doing work at the intersection of philosophy and Black S tudies,” he says, looking ahead to the classroom with excitement.

In addition to that seminar, which he plans to offer every year to ensure ongoing conversations between P hilosophy and African American Studies at Yale, he plans to teach a first-year seminar titled Philosophy, Race, and Racism and a seminar on Du Bois for grad students and advanced undergrads .

He also hopes to teach seminars on various figures like James Baldwin and Sylvia W y nter, and to contribute to the Department of Philosophy’s curriculum on 19 th century German philosophy. “I expect that from time to time I’ll go back and teach a Nietzsche course. I haven’t given up the stuff that I originally worked on for twenty or more years.”   

When it comes to his own intellectual exploration, Gooding-Williams’s fourth book will be published by Columbia University Press in the spring of 2025. That book is based o n the Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lectures he delivered at Columbia University, titled Democracy and Beauty: The Political Aesthetics of W.E.B. Du Bois. After that, he may start spending time with the works of Baldwin or W y nter, but any new writing would require “some years of reading and rereading and teaching.”   

For now, he’s more excited about teaching students and turning Yale into a destination for future philosophers than immediately leaping into a new book project. “I love teaching undergraduates, especially in small settings,” he says with a smile. “ Yale u ndergrads are fabulous.”

Image 2: Gooding-Williams and three other Yale alumni sitting for a photo after being awarded the 2023 Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association.

Image 3: The cover of Gooding-Williams’s book, In the Shadow of DuBois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America.

Image 4: Gooding-Williams standing in front of a plaque featuring W. E. B DuBois.

Undergraduates

Degree requirements.

Undergraduate students can major in Philosophy, Mathematics and Philosophy, or Physics and Philosophy. See the Yale College Programs of Study website for details for the major.

Course Information

Students should use  Yale Course Search  for course descriptions, locations and meeting times.  Undergraduate course numbers are 400 level or lower. The Registrar’s Office has an information page with instructions to use this resource. 

How to Apply

The annual application deadline for the Graduate Program in Anthropology is December 15th. To apply, please use the application system available at the GSAS admissions web page .

Graduate applicants should provide one writing sample with their application.  Please limit samples to no more than 40 pages, double spaced.