Tamar Gendler is the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and served as the inaugural Dean of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2014-2024.
Her academic research ties the work of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers to contemporary neuroscientific and psychological research on the mind to show how belief, imagination, persuasion, and judgement work. Both in the classroom and onstage, she is renowned for her ability to connect ancient philosophical texts to any modern issue in a way that is both precise and engaging. Gendler has written several books and frequently lectures publicly, with her popular online course “Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature” garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
As Dean of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, she recruited hundreds of faculty in social sciences, humanities, and the biological and physical sciences. She has held numerous fellowships and served on boards and steering committees for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; the Smithsonian Institution; and the London School of Economics.