David Scott Kastan
David Scott Kastan was formerly Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities and chair of the English Department. He came to Columbia in 1987 from Dartmouth, where he has said teaching was less challenging. He left to take up a professorship at Yale in 2008, which we hope doesn't say anything about Columbia's student body.
Kastan's interests include 16th and 17th century literature, particularly Shakespeare. He was awarded the Presidential Teaching Award in 2000 and the first Faculty Mentoring Award in 2004.