Alison Isenberg, professor of history and co-founder of the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities, died on Oct. 23, 2025. She was 63.
Alison Isenberg, professor of history and co-founder of the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities, died on Oct. 23, 2025. She was 63.
While there is so much to say about Alison as a historian and an academic I will remember her as someone with a huge heart, a kind smile, and a great sense of humor. We were friends in middle and high school. She was fun and silly and very, very smart. Alison had a way to make people feel appreciated. I will miss her.
Professor Isenberg is one of the reasons I was able to graduate from Princeton. She was my Senior thesis advisor and helped me through a difficult time. I am incredibly grateful for her warmth and compassion. She will be missed.
My condolences to the Wailoo family for your huge loss.
I know how deeply she cared for her family.
I have so much gratitude for Alison’s encouragement, enthusiasm and mentoring during my time with her in Urban Studies.
Rest in peace ❤️
I was one of the many people whom Prof. I touched through her teaching and mentoring. Not only did she help me fall in love with history and push me to become a better scholar and thinker, but she was a constant source of personal support and encouragement. I first met her in the fall of 2022. I had heard that she was a wonderful and attentive advisor, and so I turned up during her office hours hoping she would agree to work with me on my junior paper. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Through the years—well after that project was complete—Prof. I offered incisive feedback on my work, went out of her way to aid my scholarly and professional development, and always dropped everything, no questions asked, whenever I came to her with some struggle or another. I, like everyone who benefitted from her presence in their lives, knew her to be both intellectually brilliant and extraordinarily humane. I will miss her deeply. My sincere condolences.
Alison could touch a corner of the world and make it a better place – with her authentic personal warmth and awesome professional accomplishments. Jim and I send our wishes for peace and healing to Myla, Sahara and Keith.
She was an amazing teacher with clear passion for what she did. I truly enjoyed her classes, and all of us felt how much she cared. She was a wonderful professor and mentor.
As an undergrad, Alison was the first professor who made me feel truly seen and heard at Princeton. She had a genuine interest in my ideas and helped me believe in them too. Her door was always open whether I needed to talk, ask questions, or find direction when I felt stuck. I always left our conversations with a clearer mind and a renewed sense that I could take on what was hard. Her unflagging spirit and passion for her work were also deeply inspiring as a student. She showed what academia could be at its best — imaginative, inclusive, and alive with curiosity. In one of her intro Urban Studies classes, I remember studying “Main Street” through old postcards, a project that made me fall in love with Urban Studies
Alison was everything I treasure in an academic – a brilliant scholar, a kind human, with great values, and a deep commitment to social justice. And she was incredibly generous, intellectually and personally. I learned so much from her, and she changed how I view the world– especially the worlds to which we were both connected, albeit in different ways. We were each engaged in studies of San Francisco, and her other work illuminated things about my home state of South Carolina. She was one of those people whose expansive knowledge and original approach reshapes other people’s perspectives in profound ways. A huge lose of a remarkable person.
We are so deeply sad to learn only recently of Alison’s passing. We feel so lucky to have had the chance to spend time with Alison–both at Princeton and during her visit to give a talk in American Studies here at Yale–now some years ago. What we remember most about her is her light and brilliance and generosity and warmth. What a beautiful soul and exactly the kind of colleague and scholar you want in your community. Keith, we are keeping you and your children and your entire family in our prayers.
With care and our deepest condolences,
Alison made me feel like a valued colleague at Princeton, at a time when I needed that most, when I was trying to integrate my scholarship and practice, and acclimating to a new set of expectations. Her genuine, joyous enthusiasm for her work, and the work of the people around her – students, faculty, administrators, community members – was contagious, equalizing and easeful. I will so much miss our periodic check-ins, no non-sense advice from one to the other, and her incredible hospitality. I remain grateful to Alison and her family for welcoming me into the fold at such a key moment.