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This is a partial list of notable people affiliated with Wesleyan University. It includes alumni and faculty of the institution.

Administration and faculty

Academia, past and present

• Debby Applegate – former faculty, American history, 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
• Hannah Arendt – fellow 1961–1963, Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for the Humanities), political theorist
• Wilbur Olin Atwater (1865 Wesleyan B.S.) – first professor of chemistry; first to quantify the calorie; pioneer, utilization of respiration calorimeter
• Reginald Bartholomew – former professor of government; former U.S. Ambassador to Italy, to Spain, to Lebanon
• Edgar S. Brightman – faculty 1915–19, philosopher, promulgated the philosophy known as Boston personalism
• Nathan Brody – emeritus professor of psychology; known for his work on intelligence and personality
• Norman O. Brown – faculty 1946–196?; professor of classics; wrote "Love's Body" and Life Against Death
• Judith Butler – faculty 1984–86; philosopher and gender theorist
• Walter Guyton Cady – faculty 1902–46; professor of physics; Duddell Medal and Prize
• Erica Chenoweth – faculty 2008–12; political scientist, expert on civil resistance movements, Grawemeyer Award winner
• Joanne V. Creighton – faculty 1990–94; professor of English; interim president, Wesleyan; 17th president, Mount Holyoke College; interim president, Haverford College
• Raymond Dodge – former professor of psychology; experimental psychologist
• Henry Duckworth – faculty 1946–51; professor of physics; president, Royal Society of Canada (1971–72)
• Alex Dupuy – professor emeritus of sociology
• John Price Durbin – professor of natural science; Chaplain of the Senate, president of Dickinson College
• Luigi R. Einaudi – former faculty; professor of government; acting Secretary General of the Organization of American States (2004–05)
• Max Farrand – former professor of history
• Stephen O. Garrison – founder of the Vineland Training School
• Leslie H. Gelb – faculty 1964–67, department of history; Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting; director of project that produced the Pentagon Papers
• Richard N. Goodwin – fellow 1965–67, Center for Advanced Studies; advisor, speech writer to U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy
• Lori Gruen – current faculty, professor of philosophy, working at the intersections of ethical theory and ethical practice
• Philip Hallie – faculty for 32 years, philosopher; developed the model of institutional cruelty
• Gustav Hedlund – mathematician, one of the founders of symbolic and topological dynamics; visiting professor of mathematics
• Masami Imai – current faculty, economist
• Karl William Kapp – faculty 1945–50; professor of economics; one of the leading 20th-century institutional economists
• Eugene Marion Klaaren – emeritus professor, historian and professor of religion
• Stanley Lebergott – emeritus professor, American-government economist and professor of economics; noted for historical unemployment statistics
• Charles Lemert – emeritus professor, social theorist and sociologist
• Clarence D. Long – former professor of economics; former member, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, under President Dwight Eisenhower (1953–54, 1956–57)
• Andrei Markovits – professor of comparative politics and German studies (1977–83)
• Elizabeth A. McAlister — Professor of Religion, American Studies, African American Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• David McClelland (1938 Wesleyan B.S.) – professor of psychology in the early 1950s
• David McCullough – scholar-in-residence 1982, 1983; two National Book Awards (1978, 1982); two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography or Autobiography (1993, 2002); Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Louis Mink – faculty 1952–1983; philosopher of history; responsible for what would later be called the linguistic turn in philosophy of history
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan – fellow 1964–67, Center for Advanced Studies; later U.S. Senator, New York
• Lawrence Olson – faculty 1966–1988; historian specializing in Japan; developed the Asian-studies program at Wesleyan
• Satoshi Omura – visiting faculty in the early 1970s, honorary Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry, 2005; awarded honorary Doctor of Science, 1994; 2015 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Scott Plous – current faculty, professor of psychology
• Nelson W. Polsby – former faculty, political scientist; known for study of U.S. presidency and U.S. Congress
• Nathan Pusey – former faculty, department of classics; later president of Lawrence University and 24th President of Harvard University
• William North Rice (1865 Wesleyan graduate) – professor of geology
• Francisco Rodríguez – former professor of economics and Latin American studies
• Dana Royer – current faculty, professor of earth & environmental sciences
• Walter Warwick Sawyer – faculty 1958–65, professor of mathematics
• Hon. Barry R. Schaller – current faculty, teaches bioethics and public-health law, ethics and policy; associate justice, Connecticut Supreme Court
• Elmer Eric Schattschneider – faculty, 1930–60, political scientist, namesake for award for best dissertation in U. S. in field of American politics
• Carl E. Schorske – professor of history in the 1950s; Pulitzer Prize for History and MacArthur Fellowship
• Frederick Slocum – first professor of astronomy, director of the Van Vleck Observatory (1915–44)
• Richard Slotkin (MAAE Wesleyan graduate) – Olin Professor of English and American Studies, emeritus; American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• William L. Storrs – faculty 1841–46, professor of law; also Congressman from Connecticut; Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
• Max Tishler – faculty 1970–89, professor, chemistry; National Medal of Science, Priestley Medal, National Inventors Hall of Fame
• Hing Tong – former chairman, mathematics department; known for providing the original proof of the Katětov–Tong insertion theorem
• Charles Kittredge True – faculty 1849–60, professor of intellectual and moral science
• Jennifer Tucker – historian and biologist
• John Monroe Van Vleck (1850 Wesleyan graduate) – faculty 1853–1904, emeritus 1904–12, professor of mathematics and astronomy
• Clarence E. Walker – associate professor of history
• Jan Willis – emeritus professor of religion and East Asian Studies
• Woodrow Wilson – faculty 1888–90; professor, chair, history and political economy; 13th president, Princeton University; 28th President, United States; Nobel Peace Prize
• Robert Coldwell Wood – former faculty, political scientist; former 1st Undersecretary and 2nd United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1963–69)
• John Wrench – former professor of mathematics, pioneer in using computers for mathematical calculations; National Academy of Sciences
• Gary Yohe – current faculty, professor of economics; senior member, coordinating lead author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; co-recipient, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
• Elisabeth Young-Bruehl – faculty 1974–c. 1995; biographer and psychotherapist

Arts and letters, past and present

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – visiting writer 2008; MacArthur Fellowship (2008)
• John Ashbery – Millet Writing Fellow 2010; MacArthur Fellowship; 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award
• Jeanine Basinger – current faculty, c. 1970–present, film scholar
• Anselm Berrigan – current faculty, poet, Best American Poetry of 2002, 2004
• Ed Blackwell – artist in residence, late 1970s; recorded extensively with Ornette Coleman
• Anthony Braxton – John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, retired 2013; MacArthur Fellowship; 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master
• Robert E. Brown – faculty 1962–1979, professor of music, founded ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan
• Neely Bruce – current faculty, professor of music; composer, conductor, pianist, scholar of American music
• John Cage – faculty 1961, 1968, composer; affiliated with Wesleyan and collaborated with members of its Music Department from 1950s until his death in 1992
• Tony Connor – current faculty, British poet and playwright, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
• Junot Díaz – Millet Writing Fellow 2009; 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award; MacArthur Fellowship (2012)
• Annie Dillard – English faculty for 21 years; 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
• Eiko & Koma – MacArthur Fellowship; Japanese performance duo; Eiko is current faculty
• T. S. Eliot – Nobel Prize in Literature (1948), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964); in the 1960s, special editorial consultant to Wesleyan University Press
• Jimmy Garrison – artist in residence, ?–1976, bassist; long association with John Coltrane
• Angel Gil-Ordoñez – former professor of music and Director of Orchestra Studies; Spanish conductor
• Dana Gioia – visiting writer 1986–1989, American Book Award; chairman, National Endowment for the Arts (2003–2009)
• Roger Mathew Grant – current faculty, expert in music theory
• Donald Hall – 14th United States Poet Laureate, 2006–07; National Book Critics Circle Award, 1955; member, editorial board for poetry, Wesleyan University Press (1958–64)
• Jon B. Higgins (Wesleyan B.A., M.A., PhD) – faculty 1978–84, scholar and performer of Carnatic Music, Fulbright Scholar
• Ana Paula Höfling – professor of dance
• Jay Hoggard (Wesleyan B.A. 1976) – current faculty, vibraphonist
• Paul Horgan – adjunct professor of English, 1961–71; professor emeritus and permanent author-in-residence, 1971–95; twice winner, Pulitzer Prize for History (1955 and 1976); Bancroft Prize for History
• Susan Howe – distinguished visiting writer and faculty 2010–11, 2011 Bollingen Prize
• Quiara Alegría Hudes – Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater 2014–2016, visiting writer 2011–12; 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Paul LaFarge – writer, English faculty as of 2010; taught writing at the university on and off since 2002
• Alvin Lucier – John Spencer Camp Professor of Music 1970–2010; pioneering experimental composer
• William Manchester – faculty 1955–2004; former emeritus professor of history; 2001 National Humanities Medal; The Death of a President, American Caesar
• David P. McAllester – faculty 1947–86; professor, anthropology and music; co-founded Society for Ethnomusicology
• Makanda Ken McIntyre – former professor of music
• Lisa Moore – current faculty, international classical and jazz pianist
• V. S. Naipaul – former visiting professor; Nobel Prize in Literature in fiction (2001); Man Booker Prize (1971)
• Palghat Kollengode Viswanatha Narayanaswamy – artist in residence; considered to be among the finest Carnatic vocalists of the 20th century
• Ramnad Raghavan – faculty for many years, South Indian virtuoso of the mridangam
• S. Ramanathan (Wesleyan PhD, ethnomusicology) – faculty, singer (Carnatic music), and musicologist
• T. Ranganathan – first artist in residence, beginning in 1963; Carnatic virtuoso of the mridangam
• Jean Redpath – artist in residence, 1972–76
• Kit Reed – science- and speculative-fiction writer, resident writer and creative writing faculty, 2008–2017
• F.D. Reeve – faculty 1962–2002 (English and Russian literature), emeritus professor of letters (2002–2013); poet, translator
• Phyllis Rose – faculty 1969–2005, professor of English; literary critic, essayist, biographer
• George Saunders – visiting writer, MacArthur Fellowship (2006)
• Jonathan Schell – journalist, author, visiting professor in writing 2000–02
• Dani Shapiro – current faculty, professor of creative writing
• Paula Sharp – former writer in residence in the College of Letters (2003–12)
• Joseph Siry – current faculty, leading architectural historian, professor of art and art history
• Mark Slobin – current faculty, professor of music
• Charles Wilbert Snow – faculty 1921–1952; poet, professor of English; coach, debate team; founder, The Cardinal (literary magazine); Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Connecticut
• Anuradha Sriram – India playback singer
• Mark Strand – former visiting professor; fourth United States Poet Laureate, 1990–91; MacArthur Fellowship; 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Sumarsam (Wesleyan M.A. 1976) – current faculty, former artist in residence; Javanese virtuoso, scholar of the gamelan
• Marcus Thompson – former faculty, violist and viola d'amore player, recording artist and educator
• Clifford Thornton – faculty 1969–75, jazz composer and musician, UNESCO counsellor on African-American education 1976–87, Black Panther Minister of Art
• Deb Olin Unferth – former professor of English and creative writing; nominee, 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award; Pushcart Prizes 2005, 2011
• T. Viswanathan (Wesleyan PhD, ethnomusicology 1975) – former professor of music, Carnatic flute virtuoso, 1992 National Heritage Fellowship recipient
• Richard Wilbur – faculty c. 1950–80; professor of English; second United States Poet Laureate; twice winner, Pulitzer Prize (1957, 1989); Bollingen Prize
• Elizabeth Willis – current faculty, poet; teaches creative writing and literature
• Michiyo Yagi – visiting professor in late 1980s; Japanese musician, koto virtuoso
• Gorō Yamaguchi – artist in residence, Japanese shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) virtuoso

Notes

1. "Guide to the Center for Advanced Studies Records, 1958–1969". Wesleyan University. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
2. Neale, Alison (associate editor) (2003). International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004. London, New York: Europa Publications. ISBN 978-1-857-43179-7. Retrieved December 9, 2010. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
3. Little, David (February 18, 2007). "Philosophy of History". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Palo Alto, California: Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
4. "Nobel Prize Awarded to Satoshi Omura, Wesleyan's Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry". Wesleyan University. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
5. Dana Gioia Archived April 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, NEA chairman's Forum, National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved April 13, 2006.
6. Dana Gioia, U.S. National Commission for UNESCO: Members, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
7. Guide to the Poetry at the Honors College and Connecticut Poetry Circuit Records, 1966 – 1990 Archived May 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Special Collections and Archives, Olin Library, Wesleyan University. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
8. "John Spencer Camp", The Cyber Hymnal

• Lists of people by university or college in Connecticut
• Wesleyan University people