Timothy Murray, professor of comparative literature and literatures in English, has been elected chair of the board of directors of Humanities New York (HNY), a nonprofit humanities council founded in 1975 that supports and advocates for public humanities across the state.
Humanities New York is the sole statewide partner of and is supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. During the pandemic, it received federal funding to re-grant to the field through both the CARES and ARP acts.
“I’m eager to spearhead HNY’s engagement through the humanities with diverse communities across the state, expand HNY’s program of grants to local communities, and support HNY’s state and national initiatives in the humanities and the environment, incarceration and the humanities, and democratic history and principles,” Murray said.
Along with his faculty position, Murray is the director of the Cornell Council for the Arts and curator of the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library. A specialist in early modern and contemporary culture, film studies, contemporary art and philosophy, he is the author of some 30 books, collections and exhibition catalogues in multiple languages.
Sara Ogger, executive director of Humanities New York, says Murray brings “an exciting background of leadership not only in the humanities, but also in public programs, advocacy savvy, and non-profit governance” that will be important to the organization as it navigates the next phases of the pandemic.
Murray sits on the executive board of the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), serves as a member of the Town Council of the Town of Caroline, previously served as Chair of HNY’s Nominating and Governance Committee and sat on the boards of directors of the National Humanities Alliance and the International Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.
He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fulbright Association, National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Society for the Humanities, National Research Foundation of Korea and Dalian University of Technology (China).
