Dean's Office

The Dean is the chief academic adviser to the 500 students assigned to Ezra Stiles College. Residing within the college, she helps in all matters concerning their academic programs, applies and enforces the Academic and Undergraduate Regulations that govern student behavior, works in conjunction with the Registrar’s Office and the Yale College Dean’s Office, oversees the first-year counselors, and supervises first-year advising. The Dean is a great resource for a wide range of other matters and advises students on everything from personal crises to post-graduation plans. As needed, she refers students to resources, offices, or persons that can be of assistance to them. She teaches one course per year, writes letters of recommendation, serves on a range of University committees, and coordinates various college activities. In cases of incapacitating illness or family emergency, the Dean also has the authority to postpone deadlines for academic work or final exams. See more information at the bottom of this page for helpful resources and frequently requested services.

The Ezra Stiles Dean’s Office is located in Room 112 in Entryway C, just to the left after entering the front gate.

The Ezra Stiles Dean’s Office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 5pm during the academic year. To make an appointment to meet with the Dean, please call 203-432-0563.

Murphy Temple, Residential College Dean, Ezra Stiles College

Murphy Temple is a Mississippian by birth and a New Englander by education. After attending Phillips Academy Andover, she received a BA in history from Yale in 2012 and an MPhil in Modern European History from Cambridge in 2013, and a PhD in Modern British History from Stanford in 2020.

Before beginning her PhD, Dean Temple was a Teaching Fellow in History and Social Science at Phillips Academy, where she also served as a house counselor, novice crew coach, and admissions interviewer. At Stanford, she was a Graduate Teaching Consultant for the Center for Teaching and Learning, an admissions reader for Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, and the chair of PhD Pathways, Stanford’s annual career education conference for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars.

Dean Temple’s research interests focus on themes of war, memory, and commemoration, as well as the intersections of gender, technology, superstition, and belief. Her current research project investigates First World War-era British spiritualists, a population of mourners who attempted to talk to the dead through séances, Ouija boards, and other occult practices.

At Yale, Dean Temple teaches a history seminar on science and occultism in 19^th-century Britain and America. Outside of Yale, she has taught at the high school and undergraduate levels on a variety of subjects, including world history, Atlantic history, United States history, South African history, and British history. She also has experience teaching design thinking at Stanford’s life design lab.

In her free time, Dean Temple enjoys podcasts (especially This American Life; Heavyweight; and The Moth), powerlifting, knitting, painting, reading fiction, crosswords, and cooking.

Dean Temple joined Ezra Stiles in March 2020.

To make an appointment to meet with Dean Temple, please contact her assistant, Dani Gentile, in the Dean’s Office.

Dani Gentile

Dani Gentile joined the Dean’s Office of Ezra Stiles College as a senior administrative assistant in August of 2024. Prior to this, Dani was a member of the Yale Athletics staff as a senior executive assistant but has worked for Yale since 2009 in a variety of roles. She started as an accounting assistant at Yale Printing & Publishing Services, then moved on to serve as a senior administrative assistant with the Yale AIDS program from 2010 until 2013. She then spent more than nine years as an executive assistant with Yale Undergraduate Admissions before moving over to the Yale Human Nature Lab in the department of sociology, where she was an administrative manager. Dani earned a B.S. in recreation management & policy from New Hampshire in 2001 and a B.S. in accounting from Central Connecticut State in 2011. She lives in Westbrook with her husband, Vince, and daughter, Mattie.

Contact the Dean’s Office

Phone: (203) 432-0563
Fax: (203) 432-1999

Mail
Ezra Stiles College Dean’s Office
PO Box 208218
New Haven, CT 06520-8218

Courier
Ezra Stiles College Dean’s Office
302 York Street, Entryway C
New Haven, CT 06511

Email
Residential College Dean, Ezra Stiles College: murphy.temple@yale.edu

More Information:

Academic Resources | Dean’s Extensions | First Year Counselors | Forms and Services

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