Maurie McInnis


Maurie Dee McInnis is an American art historian, currently serving as the 24th president of Yale University since July 2024. She served as the 6th president of Stony Brook University from 2020 to 2024.
McInnis is a scholar in the cultural history of American art in the colonial and antebellum South, focusing on the history of academia, cultural trends, and slavery.
WWW president.yale.edu

Education

McInnis received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in art history from the University of Virginia in 1988. She was a Jefferson Scholar when she was an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.
McInnis received a Master of Arts in 1990, a Master of Philosophy in 1993, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1996, all in art history from Yale University. Her doctoral dissertation was titled The politics of taste: Classicism in Charleston, South Carolina, 1815-1840. Her doctoral advisor was Edward S. Cooke.

Career

Academic research

McInnis is a scholar in the cultural history of American Art in the colonial and antebellum South. Her work has focused on the relationship between art and politics in early America, especially on the politics of slavery. Her first book, "The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston," was awarded the Spiro Kostof Award by the Society of Architectural Historians.
Her 2011 book, "Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade" was awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Book Prize from the Smithsonian American Art Museum as well as the Library of Virginia Literary Award for nonfiction. In 2019 University of Virginia Press published her co-edited volume, "Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University." She has also served as a curator, consultant, and advisor to multiple art museums and historic sites.

Provostship

McInnis served as vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Virginia. Over her almost 20 years' experience at UVA, McInnis held various academic leadership and administrative appointments, including vice provost for academic affairs, associate dean for undergraduate education programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, director of American Studies, and as a professor of art history. She joined the faculty of UVA in 1998, earned tenure in 2005 and became a full professor in 2011.
McInnis served as the provost of the University of Texas at Austin from 2016 to 2020.

Stony Brook University

On March 26, 2020, McInnis was announced as the sixth president of Stony Brook University. She began serving in this role on July 1, 2020. McInnis won several political battles in support of Stony Brook University, including securing a $500 million donation from Jim Simons' Simons Foundation, and a $700 million bid to lead the New York Climate Exchange campus on Governors Island.
On May 13, 2024, the Stony Brook University Faculty Senate defeated a motion to censure McInnis, by a count of 55–51, over her role with regards to the arrest of 29 pro-Palestinian campus protestors and removal of a pro-Palestinian encampment earlier that month.

Yale University

In April 2024, the Yale Daily News reported that McInnis, who was appointed to Yale's Board of Trustees in 2022, was a candidate for the presidency of Yale University. On May 29, 2024, McInnis was announced as the 24th president of Yale University. McInnis was formally installed on April 6, 2025, becoming the first woman to serve as a non-interim president at Yale.

Awards and honors

Selected publications

  • McInnis contributed "entries on individual pieces."
  • In addition to co-editing, McInnis also contributed the chapter, "Revisiting Cincinnatus: Houdon’s George Washington"
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