Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 23-30, 1999Volume 28, Number 1



Mary E. Miller


Mary E. Miller is new master of Saybrook College

When students in Saybrook College return to campus next week, they will be greeted by a new master.

Mary E. Miller, an art historian who is an authority on Mesoamerican art, took on her new role as Saybrook College master on July 1.

Miller, who earned M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale, has been a member of the faculty since 1980. She is the author or coauthor of four books: "The Blood of Kings: Ritual and Dynasty in Maya Art," which in 1988 won the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award from the College Art Association of America and was a History Book Club selection; "The Murals of Bonampak," "The Art of Mesoamerica" and "The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya." Her new book, "Maya Art and Architecture," is forthcoming this autumn.

In a letter to the Saybrook College community announcing her appointment, President Richard C. Levin praised Miller for both her professional talents and her commitment to University service.

"In her larger professional life, Professor Miller enjoys writing and teaching to a general public as well as a scholarly audience," he wrote, noting that she has written for National Geographic and Archaeology magazines, and has been featured in a number of television films about the Maya that have been shown on NBC, the Discovery Channel and A&E. Miller also was featured in the Yale Alumni Association's videotape series "The Great Teachers of Yale."

Miller says she is excited to be taking on the role of master as the college prepares for major renovation.

"This is a real time of opportunity for Saybrook and I am glad to be coming in at the beginning of that process," says the art historian. "I'm excited about the opportunity to work with architects and to take part in imagining what the college will be in the 21st century."

The new residential college master notes that she is also eager to listen to Saybrook students' interests and concerns. "Being master will allow me to focus on the aspect of Yale that I most relish, which is Yale undergraduates," she says.

A 1975 graduate of Princeton University, Miller first began teaching at the University as an instructor. She was named an assistant professor in 1981, was promoted to associate professor in 1985 (with tenure in 1987) and to a full professor in 1990. She was chair of the history of art department from 1993 to 1998 and served last year as its director of graduate studies. In addition, she has been on numerous department and University committees, including the advisory committee to the Dean of Yale College, the Digital Media Center for the Arts and the Executive Committee of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute.

Miller's honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.

Also joining Miller at Saybrook is her husband, Edward Kamens, professor of Japanese at Yale and chair of the East Asian languages and literatures department. The couple has two children, 12-year-old Bill, whose interests include playing the French horn, and 8-year-old Alice, an avid reader. The family shares the Saybrook master's house with "Schooner," a golden retriever, and a cat named "Rainbow." Frequent visitors to the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale Center for British Art and the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the family also enjoys skating at Ingalls Rink.

"Neither Professor Miller nor Professor Kamens is a stranger to Yale residential college life," Levin said. "Professor Miller was a residential fellow of Timothy Dwight College for three years in the 1980s. Professor Kamens, who as a graduate student was a freshman counselor for a year on the Old Campus, began his Yale undergraduate years in 1970 as a member of Saybrook." His return to the residential college, Levin noted, brings Kamens "full circle in his Yale experience."

Miller replaces Harry Adams, who served since last fall as acting master of Saybrook College. Levin thanked Adams and his wife, Manette, for their "openness, kindness, generosity of spirit and humanity" while they served in the master's house.


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Campus Notes


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