About
Amy E. Hungerford serves as Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, holding the Ruth Fulton Benedict Professorship in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She previously spent twenty years at Yale University as the Bird White Housum Professor of English and Dean of Humanities, where she oversaw significant faculty hiring and led planning for a renovated Humanities building.
Her research centers on American literature with specific expertise in literary engagements with genocide and religion in the 20th century. Current work explores the sociable qualities of solitude and how social networks—both digital and traditional—shape contemporary writers' creative processes and readers' choices. As co-editor of the post-1945 volume of the Norton Anthology of American Literature, she influences curricula nationwide, complemented by her popular free online course The American Novel Since 1945.
Hungerford co-founded Post45, a pioneering professional association for scholars of post-1945 literary and cultural studies, and served as site editor for its open-access journal. Her mentorship has cultivated a generation of scholars now active in higher education, publishing, and secondary teaching across the U.S. and U.K.
