Sander L. Gilman

Sander L. Gilman is a cultural and literary historian, a literary critic, and a figure in psychoanalytic studies. He has contributed widely to the expansion of interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. He helped create the fields (and programs) of Medical Humanities as well as Jewish Cultural Studies in the 1970s. From these, newer fields such as Disability Studies have evolved in which he has taken part. He created in 1972 the first interdisciplinary undergraduate German Studies degree, which enabled students to combine language and culture with a wide range of other disciplines. He has been a public spokesperson for the role of the humanities in civil society advocating their expansion into professional education.