History
In the 1930’s, Professor Frank Tannenbaum and Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler discussed the idea of creating ongoing groups of Columbia professors and experts from the region to explore matters no single department had the breadth or the agility to study. Butler saw the idea as a quick way to mobilize the intellectual resources of the University to confront suddenly emerging problems, but World War II supervened. It was 1944 before Butler’s successor, Frank Fackenthal, approved the first five University Seminars.
Since their inception, the number of seminars has grown exponentially. Two of the five founding seminars are still meeting: Studies in Religion and The Renaissance.
Frank Tannenbaum, historian of Latin America, Slavery, and Prison Systems; founder and first Director of The University Seminars.
Jane Belo, teacher, painter, and anthropologist. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten.
James Gutmann, Director, 1969-1975
James Gutmann taught at the university for 42 years, retiring in 1962. He graduated from Columbia in 1918, earned his master’s degree in 1919 and a doctorate in 1936. He began his career as a lecturer in the philosophy department in 1920 and became a full professor in 1948. He was chairman of the philosophy department from 1953 to 1960.
Aaron Warner, Director, 1976–2000
Aaron Warner began his teaching career as a lecturer at Columbia in 1946 while working on his doctoral dissertation on trade unionism in post-war Britain. He completed the Ph.D. in 1954, receiving tenure as associate professor of economics, and devoted his scholarship over the following decades to labor-management relations, workman’s compensation, salary structure in U.S. companies, industrial organization and full employment. During the 1960’s, he conducted studies on labor-management problems in the East Coast maritime industry for the U.S. Commerce Department and on manpower policy for the U.S. Labor Department.
Robert L. Belknap, Director, 2001–2010
Robert L. Belknap began teaching at Columbia in 1956, and served as interim dean in 1975, and director of the Harriman Institute from 1977 to 1980. He was director of The University Seminars from 2001-2010. A scholar of Russian literature, he specialized in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, notably on The Brothers Karamazov. His work is considered as one of the best studies on Dostoevsky produced by the present generation of scholars.
Robert Pollack, Director, 2011–2019
Robert Pollack, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, majored in physics at Columbia University, where he graduated from the College in 1961. He received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Brandeis University in 1966, and subsequently was a postdoctoral Fellow in Pathology with Howard Green at NYU Medical center, and at the Weizmann Institute in Israel with Ernest Winocour. He was then recruited to Cold Spring harbor Laboratory by James Watson to establish a research program on reversion of cancer cells. He became a tenured Associate Professor of Microbiology at SUNY Stony Brook Medical Center, before returning to Columbia in 1978.
On May 7, 2025, Robert Pollack was presented the Tannenbaum-Warner Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Exceptional Service to The University Seminars.
Alice Newton, Interim Director, 2019–2022
Susan Boynton, Director from January 2023