June 2026: Mahindra Humanities Center Leadership Updates

A Letter from Provost John Manning & Dean Hopi Hoekstra

We are delighted to share the news that Suzie Clark, Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, has been reappointed as director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.

Suzie has served as the Mahindra Center’s director since 2020. An accomplished musicologist and music theorist with expertise in the work of Franz Schubert, tonal music theory, and medieval music, she has been a member of the faculty since 2008 and was Chair of the Music Department from 2016‒2019. As director, she has emerged as a collaborative, stabilizing, and receptive leader, guiding the Center with a steady hand while sustaining it as a vibrant, forward-looking hub for interdisciplinary work. Suzie is widely credited with cultivating a cross-disciplinary community of scholars, particularly through the widely commended New Faculty Lunches; sustaining engaging seminar and programming ecosystems that bring robust audiences together in dialogue; and launching new collaborations with colleagues across the University that promise to strengthen the Mahindra Center’s rich legacy of intellectual exchange. We are confident that she will continue to lead with distinction in the years ahead.

As Suzie will be on sabbatical for the 2026-27 academic year, we are also pleased to share that Robin Kelsey, Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has agreed to serve as interim director beginning on July 1, 2026.

An eminent scholar in the histories of photography, modernism, and American art, Robin brings extensive academic and administrative experience, and we are enormously grateful for his willingness to lead the Center this coming year. Robin has a strong record of service to the Harvard community, having served as Chair of the Department of History of Art & Architecture, Chair and Co-Chair of the Harvard University Committee on the Arts, and President of the Harvard College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. From 2016 to 2024 he was the Dean of Arts & Humanities, where he was widely recognized for his work to put the arts and humanities at the heart of the undergraduate curriculum and for his collaborative and innovative leadership style.

Please join us in congratulating both Suzie and Robin on their appointments. We are grateful for your ongoing contributions to the Mahindra Humanities Center and to its important work of bringing the insights of the humanities to conversations at Harvard and beyond.

Best regards,
John and Hopi

John F. Manning
Provost

Hopi E. Hoekstra
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences