The Role of Head of College
The Head of College serves as the chief administrative officer and the presiding faculty presence in Pauli Murray College. She is responsible for the safety and well-being of students, and works to foster the social, cultural, and educational life of the college. During the course of the year, the Head of College will host lectures, study breaks, game nights, and College Teas, among other events. The College Teas in particular offer students the opportunity to engage with invited guests from various parts of society and to partake in meaningful discussions.
Our Acting Head of College, Stuart Semmel
Stuart Semmel (known in the College as Doc S) has been Associate Head of Pauli Murray since the college first opened in 2017, support Head of College Tina Lu. This Academic year (2026-2027), Doc S will be serving as Acting Head of College. Prof T is on leave - but you’ll continue to see both of them in the dining hall and at many of the college events they host in the Head of College House. (And next year, they’ll swap back She and her family host many college events at their home, the Head of College House. (And then next year, they’ll swap back to their usual roles!)
Stuart Semmel is a Senior Lecturer in the History department. He teaches lecture classes on 19th-century Britain, the British empire, and global history, as well as seminars that use film and literature to explore historical consciousness. He also often teaches in Directed Studies (Historical and Political Thought). He received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he and Prof T met as graduate students. Before coming to Yale, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Delaware. His first book looked at how British politics and culture made use of Napoleon Bonaparte; his current research projects include a study of an obscure early nineteenth-century female propagandist, and a history of a particular phrase. He’s looking forward to talking with you about your own obscure interests!
Our Head of College, Tina Lu
Tina Lu—known around these parts as Prof T—is the inaugural Head of Pauli Murray College. She is deeply invested in the residential college system as a microcosm of all that is best about Yale and dedicated to making this a space of belonging for all PauliMurs.
In addition, she is also the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, a department for which she served as chair for six years. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1990 and received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University in 1998, and before joining Yale taught at the University of Pennsylvania for ten years. Her research and teaching focus on the literature of the late imperial period, from around 1550 to around 1750. Major publications include Persons, Roles and Minds (Stanford, 2001), Accidental Incest, Filial Cannibalism, and Other Peculiar Encounters in Late Imperial Chinese Literature (Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2009), a book-length chapter on late Ming literary culture in The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, v.2, and a co-edited volume on Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (MLA). A new book is forthcoming from Harvard East Asian Monographs, The Coin and the Severed Head: On Fungibility and Ownership in the Seventeenth Century. She is the recipient of grants from the ACLS, the National Humanities Center, and the Mellon Foundation, and Accidental Incest was given the Gustav Ranis Prize in 2009.
Her undergraduate courses include EALL 200, “The Chinese Tradition,” an overview of Chinese culture and history from antiquity to the 20th century. She also teaches classes on The Story of the Stone (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber) and The Plum in the Golden Vase.
Prof T and Doc S have five children, all of whom attended New Haven public schools (and one of whom still does). The HoC family dogs, Gwen and Fitz, look like siblings but are entirely unrelated. You might see Gwen at events in the HoC house (and if you’d like to take her for a walk, please let us know). You’ll see less of Fitz, a rescue dog who loves his family dearly but whose social skills need a lot of work. Patiently feeding him treats would slowly gain his trust, if you’d like to invest some time; meanwhile, please forgive him for barking fiercely at you if our paths cross on the sidewalk.