Our History

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry was established from a long-term initiative sparked by grassroots advocacy of faculty members, forwarded by the Humanities Council, and concluded by a Planning Committee appointed in Fall 2000 by the College and Graduate School Deans. The originators envisioned a Center that promotes individual research, while also increasing the impact of the humanities across the University and ultimately on Atlanta, the region, and the nation. 

The FCHI is named in honor of the late Bill and Carol Fox, in tribute to their long and devoted service to Emory University and to its students, faculty, administration, and alumni. In fact, few people have made a more lasting impact on Emory than Bill Fox '79G. As an alumnus, administrator, and friend to many, Bill Fox was an extraordinary man who, for many alumni, WAS Emory.

As a couple, the Foxes' deep intellectual and personal commitments to the fundamental role of the humanities in education, both at Emory and in the larger communities it serves, are reflected in the mission of the Center, which supports all those who believe that the humanities offer compelling guidance in the lifelong quest for meaning by the creative intellect, the moral imagination, and the human spirit.