2025 ACLS Research University Consortium Meeting

ACLS convened member representatives of the ACLS Research University Consortium, a group of 41 leading research universities for its annual meeting at Cornell Tech in New York on November 6 and 7, 2025. Representatives participated in and led a series of intensive conversations about current challenges and opportunities in the humanities and social sciences.

The meeting commenced on Thursday afternoon with a panel discussion on the current funding landscape with the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the Henry R. Luce Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.

Friday’s sessions featured two panel discussions led by Consortium representatives. The first panel presented scholarly arguments on department restructuring with Jeffrey J. Cohen F’11, F’03, Dean of Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Dean and Professor of English and Literature, Arizona State University; Deborah L. Nelson, Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division and Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English, University of Chicago; and Agustín Rayo F’09, Dean, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The second panel featured six universities that have explored new directions in doctoral education in hybrid workshops during the last three months—Zachary Sng, Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty, Professor of German Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature, Brown University; Deborah Nelson, University of Chicago; Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities, Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures and at the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University; Wendy Wall, Avalon Professor for the Humanities, Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, Professor of English, and Director of the Kaplan Humanities Institute, Northwestern University; Fay A. Yarbrough, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Graduate Programs and William Gaines Twyman Professor of History, Rice University; and Jennifer Bair, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia.

Representatives also heard from D. Graham Burnett, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Princeton University and co-founder, Strother School of Radical Attention on AI, Artificial Attention, and the Future of the University; and Cassim Shepard, Coordinator, Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and the Built Environment, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College (CUNY).

The ACLS Research University Consortium meets regularly in virtual forums and will convene again in person in October 2026 in New York.

For information about joining the ACLS Consortium, contact Mary Richter, Chief Development Officer, at [email protected].