Harvey Young

Harvey Young is Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, where he holds appointments as Professor of English, Theatre Arts, and African American & Black Diaspora Studies. He is the author/editor of ten books, most recently Theater and Human Flourishing (Oxford University Press, 2023) and has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, NPR, CBC Radio as well as within the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune among other major news outlets.

Appointed in January 2018, Dean Young provides primary leadership for the College of Fine Arts, which includes Boston University School of Music, BU School of Theatre, BU School of Visual Arts, BU Tanglewood Institute, BU Art Galleries, BU Bands, and Wheelock Family Theatre. His recent achievements include the opening of the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, the successful close of BU’s first-ever capital campaign (with CFA exceeding goal by 40%), extensive renovation of CFA facilities (with more than $110M invested), comprehensive redesign of curricular offerings, and the expansion of international programs. Since 2018, CFA Visual Arts has climbed twenty spots in U.S. News & World Report Graduate rankings with MFA Painting rising to #6 in the nation; CFA Theatre has been recognized by Playbill as a leading producer of Broadway creative teams (ranked #7) in 2024; and Wheelock Family Theatre has won the Norton Award (top-prize in New England professional theatre) for Best Production.

Beyond the arts, Dean Young served on the BU Presidential Search committee, University Strategic Plan committee (BU 20/30), University Strategic Plan Implementation committee, and university-level taskforce to assess the future of PhD education. In addition, he chaired the searches for the Associate Provost for Community & Inclusion and Dean of Wheelock College (Education). Dean Young currently chairs both the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts and the Arts Leaders Circle, serves on the advisory search committee for Senior Vice President for University Relations, and represents Boston University on the Patriot League’s Anti-Racism Commission.

Between 2002 and 2017, Dr. Young was a member of the faculty at Northwestern University, where he was Professor and Chair of Theatre with appointments in African American Studies and Professor of Radio/Television/Film. During his tenure as Chair, Northwestern Theatre rose to #2 in the nation (The Hollywood Reporter).

A past president of both the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the Black Theatre Association, Dean Young has served on the boards of numerous arts and educational organizations, including the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a²ru), American Society for Theatre Research and Yale Club of Chicago. He currently serves on the boards of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Company One Theatre, and the WBUR (public radio) Community Advisory Board. He has served as a member of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll’s Art and Culture Policy Committee as well as a consultant and evaluator for numerous arts & culture foundations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Doris Duke Foundation.

A former Harvard and Stanford faculty fellow, Dean Young graduated with honors from Yale and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell. In 2021, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.