Dean of the Divinity School Appointed
The University of Chicago Divinity School is pleased to announce the appointment of James T. Robinson, the Caroline E. Haskell Professor of the History of Judaism, Islamic Studies, and the History of Religions in the Divinity School and the College, as Dean of the Divinity School, effective December 1.
Jim has served as Interim Dean of the Divinity School since July 2021. The school has seen notable successes in numerous areas since that time, particularly in faculty and research growth and initiatives. These include hiring two new faculty scholars, expanding the school’s Teaching Fellows program for recent PhD graduates, and piloting the first year of successful teaching of the school’s new undergraduate Core sequence. Under Jim’s leadership, the Divinity School is currently searching for the newly created Tandean Rustandy Distinguished Service Professor in Global Christianities as well as faculty positions in race and religion, early modernities, rabbinic Judaism, and Japanese Buddhism. The school is further broadening and amplifying research and teaching in Jain studies and Islamic studies. Jim has also been instrumental in operationalizing the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, developing new programming and research projects.
Jim conducts research focused on medieval Jewish intellectual history, philosophy, and biblical exegesis in the Islamic world and Christian Europe. Since joining the University in 2003, he has taught more than 25 courses in the field of medieval Judaism and was recognized with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring in 2017. Jim is the author of four books, three edited volumes, and more than 40 articles and chapters and has been co-editor of The Journal of Religion since 2013.
In addition to his faculty roles in the Divinity School and the College, Jim holds appointments in the Program in Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies. He is also an affiliated member of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Jim earned his MPhil in oriental studies (modern Jewish studies) from Oxford University, his MA and PhD in near eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University, and his BA in applied mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.