Humanities Research
Featured Research News
Meet the Humanities Faculty
- Professor of English; Dean of Undergraduate Students
Jennifer Jahner
We live in unprecedented times, but I hope that students leave my classes with the recognition that the questions we ask about inquiry, ethics, environment, and art are not new ones. Attention to the past can make us more creative stewards of the present."
- Eli and Edythe Broad Professor of English
Cindy Weinstein
Caltech is a wonderful place to pursue original research; it lets your interests determine the work you do. There is both a tremendous amount of freedom and an extremely high level of expectation, and these two combine to create a terrific intellectual environment that helps scholars generate their best work."
- Assistant Professor of Black Studies and English
Dana Murphy
My commitment to creative works which emphasize care within critical and liberative contexts has only deepened during my time at Caltech. I hope my research and my courses help students navigate an increasingly uncertain world."
- Professor of Visual Culture
Brian R. Jacobson
There’s no better place to work on questions about the intersection between art, aesthetics, science, and technology than at Caltech, where students, faculty, scientists, and engineers are working on visual culture all the time—just in a way that we don’t necessarily always think of as visual culture."
- Professor of English and Visual Culture
Catherine Jurca
We live in a world of images and screens, and visual literacy is an important part of being an educated, thoughtful person in the world."
- Professor of Philosophy
Charles T. "Chip" Sebens
When students start learning philosophy, they often feel like the scenarios that philosophers discuss are outlandish and not worth taking seriously. An analysis of science fiction allows students to put these concerns aside and ultimately realize that philosophy is relevant to their lives and to other fields of academic inquiry."
- Professor of History
Warren C. Brown
In my classes, students learn the craft of the medieval historian: to read closely the often difficult primary sources from medieval Europe; push past but also take into account their perspectives, assumptions, and biases, as much as possible; and to assemble what they have learned into persuasive written arguments."
- Assistant Professor of History
Danielle Wiggins
I bring to the classroom complex questions concerning inequality and justice that I've often yet to figure out myself. I invite students to think along with me and, through this collaboration, I equip them with tools to confront the most pressing concerns of our time."
- Edie and Lew Wasserman Professor of Social Science History; Ronald and Maxine Linde Leadership Chair, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech
Tracy Dennison
Our memories for epidemics are very short. We keep hearing that things will never be the same again, but that's not what the history tells us. Some things may change, but the kind of profound social reorganization one might expect is unlikely."
- Professor of Comparative Literature
Jocelyn Holland
The humanities have the practical function of giving students something they wouldn't otherwise have. The humanities classroom is a space where they can take a step back from their scientific work and learn to think about the world in a different way."
