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J. Hoberman Named Gelb Professor in the Humanities

POSTED ON: October 4, 2011

The Cooper Union is pleased to announce that for academic years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 Professor J. Hoberman will be the first Gelb Professor in the Humanities at the Cooper Union. Through a deeply appreciated gift, alumnus Morris Gelb (CHE'67) and his wife Amanda have chosen to support humanities teaching. Their generosity allows us to recognize not only an outstanding teacher but a writer and critic who has been part of the Cooper Union Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for two decades.

A distinguished film critic for the Village Voice, Jim is the author of numerous books on film history — including Vulgar Modernism, Home Made Movies, Midnight Movies  (coauthored with Jonathan Rosenbaum), and Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, which will be reissued in an expanded edition by Temple University Press later in 2010. Jim’s courses in film history have introduced two decades of Cooper Union students to the masterpieces of American, European and world cinema, from the silent era to the present.

The Gelb Professorship gives us a way to acknowledge Jim’s excellence as well as the importance of film studies within the humanities, and the humanities as a vital component of a Cooper Union education.

More News from The Cooper Union

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.