Gene A. Jarrett (1975-), the William S. Tod Professor of English, is Princeton’s dean of the faculty, having stepped into his role as the 17th dean in 2021. He is an acclaimed scholar in African American literary history and a recognized university administrator, having held leading positions in higher education for more than 15 years.

Jarrett’s dedication to improving the world through postsecondary learning has been a signature of his career. His scholarly work centers on African American literary history from the 18th century to the present; U.S. literary history between the Civil War and World War II; race, ethnic, and cultural studies; and theories of literature, aesthetics, and intellectual historiography. 

Born and raised in New York City, Jarrett earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Princeton in 1997. He went on to earn a master’s degree in English in 1999 and a doctorate in English in 2002, both from Brown University.

Upon graduating from Brown, he joined the Department of English at the University of Maryland as an assistant professor. After five years in College Park, Jarrett took a position at Boston University as a jointly appointed associate professor in English and African American studies. He achieved the rank of full professor in both departments in 2012.

Jarrett held several significant administrative appointments at Boston University, including acting director of the Program in African American Studies from 2009 to 2010, chair of the Department of English from 2011 to 2014, co-chair of the Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion from 2015 to 2016 and associate dean of the faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences from 2014 to 2017.

He left Boston University in 2017 to become the Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of English at New York University, roles he held until 2021.

Jarrett returned to Princeton in the summer of 2021, nearly 25 years after earning his undergraduate degree here. After over two decades of service and study as an academic administrator, professor and scholar of African American literary studies, Jarrett was named dean of the faculty.

Serving as dean, Jarrett has made important strides toward improving the academic quality of the Princeton faculty by instituting a robust system of periodic academic reviews for departments and other faculty-appointing units. He has brought renewed focus to faculty diversity and inclusion efforts, as well as strengthened and modernized the structure of the Office of the Dean of the Faculty to be more strategic and intentional in its administrative operations. He has also developed campus initiatives in faculty collaboration and curricular planning to strengthen humanities teaching and research. 

In addition to his roles as dean of the faculty and the William S. Tod Professor of English, Jarrett has served on the Association of American Universities’ (AAU) Advisory Board for Racial Equity in Higher Education and the board of the National Humanities Alliance.

In 2024, he was awarded the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin for his biography, “Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird.” Administered by the Iowa Writers’ Workshop on behalf of the estate of Truman Capote, the award has been, since its inception in 1994, the largest annual cash prize for English-language literary criticism, according to the organization.

Written by Shane B. Black for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.