Blakey Vermeule named senior associate dean for the humanities and arts

Blakey Vermeule, professor of English in the School of Humanities and Sciences, will serve as senior associate dean for the humanities and arts starting Sept. 1. She succeeds Gabriella Safran, professor of Slavic languages and literatures and of Jewish studies, who has held the position since 2021.

“Blakey is a wonderful scholar of 18th-century literature, and her work also ranges widely over the cognitive underpinnings of fiction, the history of the novel, philosophy, and literature, and what we know about the unconscious,” said Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. “And she has a wry sense of humor! I am delighted that she will serve as the new senior associate dean for the humanities and arts.” 

Vermeule has served as the chair of the Department of English and vice chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate. In addition to her research and teaching, she has been the co-director of Stanford Public Humanities for the past four years. The initiative seeks to advance research in the humanities and arts, which is a mission Vermeule hopes to continue as senior associate dean.

"I would really like to celebrate human creativity, especially in scholarship but also in the arts: in creative writing, music, and art practice,” she said. “When it comes to students, I care a lot about trying to find ways to engage undergraduates and give graduate students the tools and resources they need to do their work—and that includes building their confidence and skills.”

How fictional worlds influence human reality

Vermeule’s scholarly work sits at the crossroads of cognitive science and literature. She started her career investigating 18th-century literature and the origins of the novel, but soon her interest led her to fundamental questions about why humans turn to fiction for knowledge. 

“I am fascinated by the fact that human beings are a unique species that learns actual information from fictional worlds,” she said. “I want to understand this from a cognitive, even evolutionary, point of view.”

Her work includes all types of belief in speculative stories—even ones that are problematic such as belief in misinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theories.  

Vermeule teaches a range of courses related to evolutionary moral psychology as well as literature. She is currently writing a book about the rise of economics as a central mode of thought in Western culture from the 1970s to today.

Better by the dozen

For the past four years, Gabriella Safran has served in the H&S role that leads 12 departments, the largest grouping in the school. 

“Gabriella has achieved a great deal as senior associate dean for the humanities and arts,” Satz said. “Her judgment, humanity, and range have helped us recruit and retain amazing faculty over a challenging time.”

It is fitting that Safran, an expert in Russian literature, has led an H&S group with 12 department chairs, since The Twelve Chairs is also the name of a well-known early 20th-century Russian novel. While the novel is a satire, Safran says her chairs are among the most genuine and caring people she knows.

“The chairs are all so hardworking, thoughtful, and inspirational,” she said. “They really go so far beyond what they have to do. We live in sort of a cynical time, but the people that I work with are not. They are sincere, and they care a lot. I am really grateful to have worked with them.”

In her work as senior associate dean, Safran is proud of helping foster community among the chairs with quarterly meetings. She also helped increase their number from 11 to 12 by continuing the work to establish the Department of African and African American Studies, which involved hiring more faculty and selecting a chair. 

In addition, during her tenure, Safran has put a focus on teaching, setting up a teaching mentorship program and collaborating with the Center for Teaching and Learning to create a series of teaching workshops.

Safran is a professor of Slavic languages and literatures in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and a professor of Jewish studies in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity in H&S. She was named the John and Lydia Pearce Mitchell University Fellow in Undergraduate Education in 2024.