Our Team

Current Team

Simon Rabinovitch

Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies; Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Simon Rabinovitch is the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies, and he teaches and writes on a range of topics in European, Jewish, Russian, and legal history. His latest book is Sovereignty and Religious Freedom: A Jewish History, published by Yale University Press in 2024. His other books include Jewish Rights, National Rites: Nationalism and Autonomy in Late Imperial and Russian Jewry and the edited collections Jews and Diaspora Nationalism: Writings on Jewish Peoplehood in Europe and the United States and Defining Israel: The Jewish State, Democracy, and the Law. He is currently working with students on several digital projects including a crowdsourced digital archive of Jewish migration (https://jewishmigration.org) and the website Digital History of the Jews of Boston (https://dhjewsofboston.northeastern.edu/).
Kirsten Saxton

Professor of English; Director of the Humanities Center, Oakland

Kirsten Saxton’s scholarship explores how contemporary readings of historical texts provide new ways to think, not only about the past, but the present. Prof. Saxton’s early work reshaped the field of 18th-century literary studies through feminist interventions. Her current research emphasizes how reading 18th- and 19th-century texts through anti-racist, feminist, queer, and disability activist theoretical positions offers us productive ways to understand not only historical contexts, but also our own moment.
Oliver Ayers

Associate Professor of History; Director of the Humanities Center, London

Oliver Ayer’s research centres on themes of race, urban space and digital historical analysis. His first monograph, Laboured Protest examined Black civil rights activism in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Dr. Ayers co-leads the multiyear digital history project, Mapping Black London, alongside Professor Nicole Aljoe in CSSH. The project has focused on the Second World War as well as the life and times of Ignatius Sancho. The project recreates Sancho’s world and its connections to the transformative events shaping the life of the nation.
Getty L. Lustila

Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Religion; Associate Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Getty L. Lustila is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Associate Director of the Humanities Center. Getty earned his PhD in Philosophy from Boston University in 2019. Prof. Lustila is a specialist in early modern European philosophy, with a focus in the history of ethics and political thought. He also teaches and writes on Indigenous philosophy, and is currently working on a co-authored manuscript titled, An Introduction to Indigenous Philosophy. Prof. Lustila is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Shireen Zaineb

Digital Projects Archivist of the Humanities Center

Shireen Zaineb (she/her) is the Digital Projects Archivist at Northeastern University, where she supports digital archives and initiatives at the Humanities Center. With a background in media studies and religious studies, her current work focuses on metadata best practices, community-engaged archiving, and data security.
Tiana Owens

Assistant Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Tiana is the Assistant Director of the Humanities Center. In this role, she collaborates with the directors, based in Boston, London, and Oakland, and the Associate Director in Boston to coordinate the work of the Humanities Center. She holds a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University and a B.A. in Sociology from Clark University

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Residence, Humanities Center and English

Gordon Henry

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Residence

Gordon Henry (Ojibwe) is an enrolled member/citizen of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota. He is a retired Professor in the English Department at Michigan State University, where he taught American Indian Literature and Creative Writing. He served several years as Senior Editor of the American Indian Studies Series at Michigan State University Press. In 1995, Henry received an American Book Award for his novel the Light People and his poetry, fiction and essays have been published extensively in the U.S. and Europe. In 2004, he co-published an educational reader on Ojibwe people with George Cornell. In 2007, Henry published a mixed-genre collection, The Failure of Certain Charms, with Salt Publishing. More recently Henry’s writing has appeared in, Bob Seger’s House, (Wayne State University Press); Iperstoria, a literary journal from the University of Verona, Italy; Revolucion: A Cuban Journal, of Havana; New Poets of Native Nations; Poetry; Wassafiri; and When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through (2020) and Living Nations, Living Words (2021)–two poetry anthologies edited by Joy Harjo.

The Northeastern Humanities Center was founded in 2008 under the directorship of Carla Kaplan, Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature, who directed the Center until 2011. From 2013 through 2022, the Humanities Center was directed by Lori Hope Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor and Director of the Jewish Studies Program, who also became interim director following the tragic death of Ángel David Nieves, on December 2, 2023. In July 2024, we welcomed K.J. Rawson. Under Prof. Rawson’s tenure the Humanities Center became more fully integrated into Northeastern’s global campus network. In August 2025, Simon Rabinovitch stepped into the role as Director of the Humanities Center. Kirsten Saxon serves as the Director of the Humanities Center for Northeastern University Oakland, and Oliver Ayers, the Director of the Humanities Center for Northeastern University London. In addition, Getty L. Lustila has joined as Associate Director for the Humanities Center in Boston. More than ever, the Humanities Center is well-positioned to become a dynamic catalyst for collaborative humanities research and programming across Northeastern’s global network. We look forward to being a leading voice for the humanities within and beyond the university.

Our Team

Current Team

Simon Rabinovitch

Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies; Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Kirsten Saxton

Professor of English; Director of the Humanities Center, Oakland

Oliver Ayers

Associate Professor of History; Director of the Humanities Center, London

Getty L. Lustila

Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Religion; Associate Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Shireen Zaineb

Digital Projects Archivist of the Humanities Center

Tiana Owens

Assistant Director of the Humanities Center, Boston

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Residence, Humanities Center and English

Gordon Henry

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Residence