Robert Farris Thompson

Robert Farris Thompson (born December 30, 1932, El Paso, Texas) is the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University.

He lived in the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria for many years while he conducted his research of Yoruba arts history. He is affiliated with the University of Ibadan and frequented Yoruba village communities. Thompson has studied the African arts of the diaspora in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and several Caribbean islands. Robert Farris Thompson is also an authority on hip hop culture.

History at Yale

In 1955, Thompson received his B.A. from Yale University. After receiving his Bachelors Degree, he continued his studies at Yale where he received his Masters in 1961 and his Ph.D in 1965.

Having served as Master of Timothy Dwight College from 1978 until 2010, he was the longest serving master of a residential college at Yale. He was recently replaced as Master of Timothy Dwight College by Jeffrey Brenzel. Thompson is one of America's most prominent scholars of African art, and has presided over exhibitions of African art at the National Gallery in Washington D. C.. Thompson is one of the longest-serving alumni of Yale. Bob has made Yale home.