Alfred H. Bloom

Alfred H. Bloom was appointed Vice Chancellor for New York University Abu Dhabi on September 29, 2008, with full responsibilities to begin September 1, 2009 while serving his 18th and final year as president of Swarthmore College.

During his tenure at Swarthmore, the College has become broadly recognized as a model of the finest undergraduate education, its mission centered in interlinked commitments to intellectual rigor, ethical intelligence and advancing the broader conditions of humanity.  Over the past 18 years, applicants for admission have increased four-fold.  The College’s Honors Program, the hallmark of its intellectual excellence, has been revitalized. Its educational offerings have been significantly enriched.  Its community has become highly diverse, and $400 million in gifts have been raised.

From 1986-1991 Bloom served as Vice President for Academic Affairs, and then Executive Vice President, of Pitzer College in Claremont, California.  From 1974-1986, he served as Assistant, and then Associate, Professor of Linguistics and Psychology at Swarthmore College, and from 1985-86 as Associate Provost of the College. 

Alfred Bloom earned a B.A. in Romance Languages and European Civilization, summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1967; earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Relations in 1974 from Harvard University; and was awarded an honorary doctorate in laws from the University of Richmond in 2007.  He joined the Council of Advisors of the European College of Liberal Arts in 2008.

Bloom’s publications include “Caution—The words you use may affect what you say:  A response to Terry Kit-fong Au (Cognition, 1984),” “Psychological Ingredients of High-Level Moral Thinking: A Critique of the Kohlberg-Gilligan Paradigm (Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 1986),”“The Linguistic Shaping of Thought:  A Study of The Impact of Language on Thinking in China and the West (Erlbaum, 1981)”, and “A New Mandate for American Education (The Swarthmore Papers, 1993)”.

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