Maurie D. McInnis

Maurie D. McInnis (born January 11, 1966) is an American author and cultural historian. She currently serves as the 24th president of Yale University, succeeding Peter Salovey on July 1, 2024. She previously served as the sixth president of Stony Brook University.

McInnis is a prominent scholar in the cultural history of American art in the colonial and antebellum South, focusing on the history of academia, cultural trends, and slavery.

Education
McInnis attended the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar. She received a B.A. from Virginia in Art History with Highest Distinction in 1988, and her Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University in 1996.

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.

University of Virginia
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.

University of Texas at Austin
McInnis served as the provost of the University of Texas at Austin from 2016 to 2020.

Stony Brook University
On March 26, 2020, Dr. 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 (the second-largest gift to a public university in American history), 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 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. She is the first woman to serve as non-interim president of Yale.

Awards and honors

 * National Endowment for the Humanities
 * Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
 * Charles C. Eldredge Prize, presented to Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, for outstanding scholarship in the field of American Art, 2012.
 * Library of Virginia Literary Award for non-fiction, 2012 for Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade.
 * Spiro Kostof Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians, presented to The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston for the book that has made the greatest contribution to our understanding of urbanism and its relationship with architecture, 2007.
 * Fred B. Kniffen Book Award, Pioneer America Society, presented to The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston for the best book in the field of material culture in North America, 2007.
 * George C. Rogers, Jr. Book Award, South Carolina Historical Society, presented to The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston for the best book about South Carolina, 2006.
 * Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge University

Selected publications

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