David Coombs, an associate professor in the Department of English, has been appointed as the new director of the Clemson University Humanities Hub.
The Humanities Hub advances the outreach, scholarly, and teaching activities of the humanities on campus and beyond.
“The humanities explore fundamental questions about what makes us human: what was our past like? What is the nature of knowledge or belief? How do we understand the stories we tell or the songs we sing?” Coombs explained. “Grappling with these questions is essential for Clemson’s land-grant university mission to produce knowledge and provide a transformative education for our students.”
Coombs has been a member of the Clemson English faculty since 2012, holding a master’s and Ph.D. in English from Cornell University, as well as his undergraduate degree from Indiana University. He is an authority on Victorian literature and the history of science, and authored the book Reading with the Senses in Victorian Literature and Science (University of Virginia Press, 2019).
“The humanities explore fundamental questions about what makes us human: what was our past like? What is the nature of knowledge or belief? How do we understand the stories we tell or the songs we sing?”
Last year, he was the driving force behind a flagship event for Clemson Humanities: a visit and reading from author Percival Everett, who won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award and the 2024 Kirkus Prize with his novel, James.
“I was thrilled to see Dr. Coombs’s interest in the position. He has already done a splendid job conceiving and fostering humanities activities on campus as part of the massive Pathways initiative,” said Nichlas Vazsonyi, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “Being director of the Humanities Hub gives him an even bigger platform to advocate for the humanities and to demonstrate for the campus, the community, and beyond how essential the humanities are for our ability to navigate our lives as individuals and to coexist within the many different contexts we find ourselves.”
In 2023, Coombs led the Pathways in the Humanities and Social Sciences initiative, which introduced a new interdisciplinary minor for Clemson students and established a lecture series attracting leading scholars to campus. Pathways was made possible by a Cornerstone Grant from the Teagle Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His experience leading the Pathways initiative by creating partnerships across the college has informed his approach to the Humanities Hub.
“The Humanities Hub is positioned to lead College of Arts and Humanities in the collaborative work that makes for such positive-sum outcomes,” he said. “I think this strategy is how we can best advocate for the humanities at Clemson and meet the challenges of the moment.”
Prior to his leadership of Pathways, Coombs served as director of undergraduate studies for the English Department from 2019-2022. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and he was previously an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Humanities.
As Humanities Hub director, Coombs will succeed James Burns, who has accepted the post of Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, one of the most prestigious endowed professorships in the College of Arts and Humanities.
