Thomas Bender

University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, New York University

Thomas Bender is University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at New York University, where he has taught American history since 1974.

Previously, he served as chair of the department twice, and as Dean for the Humanities. He currently directs the International Center for Advanced Study at NYU.

Mr. Bender has held visiting appointments at the University of Venice and the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris.

Most of his writing and teaching fall fall within the broad category of intellectual and cultural history, with particular focus on the histories of cities and city culture, the history of intellectuals and the academic disciplines. He is also interested in historiography and questions on narrative explanation.

He has authored a number of books, including “Toward an Urban Vision,” “Community and Social Change in America” and “New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City, from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time.”

Mr. Bender has also held Guggenheim and Rockefeller Humanities Fellowships — and was a Getty Scholar. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994 and is currently a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford.