List of people considered a founder in a humanities field

Those known as the father, mother, or considered a founder in a humanities field are those who have made important contributions to that field. In some fields several people are considered the founders, while in others the title of being the "father" is debatable.

Arts

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Abstract art	Hilma af Klint[1]	For "[inventing] an abstract vocabulary blending biomorphic and geometric forms," that predates Wassily Kandisky.[1]
Animation	Lotte Reiniger[2] Margaret J. Winkler[3]	Reiniger: For making The Adventures of Prince Achmed, "[t]he first full-length animation movie of film history."[2] Winkler: For being "one of the earliest female producers of animation, with international hits like the cartoon, Felix the Cat."[3]
Anime	Ōten Shimokawa Jun'ichi Kōuchi Seitaro Kitayama[4]
Australian studio pottery	William Merric Boyd
Cinematography	Alice Guy-Blaché[5][6]	For being the first female film director and "among the first to employ techniques like close-ups, hand-tinted color, and synchronized sound. "[6]
Dadaism	Beatrice Wood[7][8]	For her involvement in the movement,[7] which stemmed from her enjoyment of, upon her own admission, "being subversive."[8]
Danish painting	Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard[9]
Fashion	Coco Chanel[10] Jeanne Lanvin[11] Vivienne Westwood[12]	Chanel: For "revolutionizing how [people] dress, she helped form a new ideal of what a fashion brand could be."[10] Lanvin: for founding "one of the oldest French fashion houses in operation today," through which she popularized the robe de style dress.[11] Westwood: For "[selling] the customised Teddy Boy threads that developed into punk... [and with her 1981 Pirate collection changing] the way people looked...[and creating] a new language of clothes."[12]
Modern fashion photography	Norman Parkinson[13]	For taking his models and photoshoots beyond the confines of the studio.
Modern French cooking	Eugénie Brazier[14][15]	For her Lyonnaise-style of cooking, becoming the first woman to ever hold three Michelin stars[15] and at age 38, the first individual to hold six simultaneously, a record that lasted for 65 years until 1998, which led Curnonsky to deem her as "the greatest chef in the world."[14]
French New Wave cinema	Agnès Varda[16]	For "directing celebrated films including Cléo from 5 to 7, Happiness and The Creatures."[16]
Gothic architecture	Abbot Suger[17]	Built the first Gothic church at the Abbey of St Dennis
Harlem Renaissance (sculpture)	Augusta Savage[18]	For being "a talented sculptor in her own right, [as well as] the first African American wom[a]n to open her own art gallery, the ‘Salon of Contemporary Negro Art’."[18]
Manga	Osamu Tezuka[19]
Oil painting	Jan van Eyck[20]	For experimenting with the medium to remarkable effect
Photojournalism	Mathew Brady[21]
Pop art	Richard Hamilton[22]
New Puerto Rican cuisine	Alfredo Ayala[23][24]	"[F]or being the manager of a new local gastronomic movement in times of ‘nouvelle cuisine’, which sought to exalt the richness of Puerto Rican cuisine to position it in haute cuisine,"[23]..."[becoming] the best ambassador of the island."[24]
Scottish country dancing	Francis Peacock[25]
Spanish cuisine	Penelope Casas[a][26] María Mestayer [es][27]	Casas: For "demonstrating the breadth of regional Spanish cuisine."[26] Mestayer: For being "[a] woman ahead of her time who had to fight against the social prejudices of a classist Spain and faced a civil war from the kitchens."[27]
Stop-motion clay animation	Art Clokey[citation needed]
Surrealism	André Breton Dorothea Tanning[28]

Communication

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Public Relations	Edward Bernays	Author of the book Crystalizing Public Opinion and creator of the Torches of Freedom advertising campaign.
Spam	Gary Thuerk[29][30]	Penned the first message that advertised the availability of a new model of Digital Equipment Corporation computers to 393 recipients on ARPANET in 1978.[31]

Education

Subject	Father / mother	Life span	Reason
Afghan education	Sakena Yacoobi[32]	(born 1949 or 1950)	For her work through the Afghan Institute of Learning, which "works...to empower women and bring education and health services to poor women and girls in rural and urban areas, serving hundreds of thousands of women and children a year."[32]
American education	Mary McLeod Bethune[33] Horace Mann[34]	(1875–1955) (1796–1859)	Bethune: For her "high standards and...[demonstration] of what educated African Americans could do," through her school, which later became Bethune–Cookman University.[33] Mann: Advocated for common schools and nonsectarian education.
American Catholic education	Mary Elizabeth Lange[35][36]	(c. 1789–1882)	For founding the first Catholic school in the United States for children of color as well as the first religious community of women of African-American descent.[35]
Argentinian education	Domingo Faustino Sarmiento[37] Juana Paula Manso[37]	(1811–1888) (1819–1875)	Sarmiento: For improving the country's education system. Manso: For educating women and advocating for their equal education.[37]
Costa Rican education	Carmen Lyra[38]	(1888–1949)	For founding the Escuela Maternal ('maternal school'), the first Montessori school in Costa Rica in 1925.[38]
Dominican education	Salomé Ureña[39]	(1850–1898)	For founding "the Instituto de Señoritas ('young ladies' institute'), which became the first center devoted exclusively to the training of teachers," in the Dominican Republic and called as such by Chiqui Vicioso.[39]
Japanese language education in Romania	Angela Hondru[40]	Still living	"[F]or her role in saving Japanese studies from extinction in her country in the 1970s and for her more than 30 years of dedication to the field since then."[40]
Namibian education	Ottilie Abrahams[41]	(1937–2018)	For "[forming] the Namibian National Nationhood Programme, a consortium of NGOs working in the areas of education and agro-ecology."[41]
Nicaraguan education	Josefa Toledo de Aguerri[42]	(1866–1962)	"[F]or her work as a teacher of generations," educating Pinolero children as the "future citizens...[of] tomorrow who will integrate the collectivity of the nation.”[42]
Paraguayan education	Rosa Peña Guanes[43]	(1843–1899)	For founding twenty-four girls' schools and the National Asylum in Paraguay.[44]
Early education in Peru	Emilia Barcia Boniffatti[45]	(1904–1986)	For founding the first preschool in the Peruvian Amazonia.[45]
Puerto Rican education	Jaime Benítez Rexach[46] Celestina Cordero[47][48] Rafael Cordero[47][49]	(1908–2001) (1787–1862) (1790–1868)	Benítez: Called as such by Herman Badillo for "there [being] no man in this country who has done more to bring up the level of educational opportunities to poor people than [him]." Celestina: For founding the first school for girls in Puerto Rico. Rafael: For providing free schooling to the children, regardless of race or social standing.
Saudi Arabian education	Iffat bint Mohammad Al Thunayan[50]	(1916– 2000)	For founding "the Taif model school and the first girl's college in Saudi Arabia."
Tampa education	Electa Lee[51]	(1808–1870)	For "[opening] what is believed to be the first local school," in Tampa.[51]
Washington D. C. education	Myrtilla Miner[52]	(1815–1864)	For "providing a quality education for all children in the District of Columbia regardless of race, creed or class," through her Normal School for Colored Girls, which later became the University of the District of Columbia.[52]
Western Cape education	Helen Zille[53]	(born 1951)	For her "hands-on approach" tenure as Western Cape MEC for Education.[53]

History

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
African-American history	Arturo Alfonso Schomburg[54]	For his "[research and raising] awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and African Americans have made to society,...[being] an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance [and, over] the years, [collecting] literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.
Black history	Carter G. Woodson[55]	A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916.
Ecclesiastical history	Eusebius of Caesarea[56]	Because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church
French history	André Duchesne[56]
Historiography	Ibn Khaldun[57]	Muqaddimah (Prolegomena) (1377)
History	Herodotus[58] Thucydides	The Histories History of the Peloponnesian War
History of science	George Sarton[59]	Founded Isis (1912) and wrote Introduction to the History of Science (1927)
Modern history	Leonardo Bruni[60]
Philosophy of history	Ibn Khaldun[61]	Muqaddimah (Prolegomena) (1377)
Public administration	Woodrow Wilson[62]	"The Study of Administration" in Political Science Quarterly, June 1887.
Puerto Rican history	Salvador Brau[63] Alejandro Tapia y Rivera[64][65]

Justice

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Criminal identification	Alphonse Bertillon[66]	Created a database for criminals
Fingerprinting	Juan Vucetic[67]

Language and literature

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Modern African literature	Flora Nwapa[68]	For "[setting] the stage for the emergence of female writers in Nigeria and other African countries," by being "the first African woman to publish a book in English."[68]
American folklore	Richard Dorson[69]
American literature	Mark Twain[70] Ralph Waldo Emerson[71]	Mark Twain is often attributed to being one of the first authors to write in American vernacular and address major issues such as race and slavery, particularly through the wilted of southern Americans. Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with beginning the nation's literary renaissance and original philosophical ideas with Transcendentalism.
American novel	Susanna Rowson[72]	For writing one of the "best-selling novels of the time...Charlotte, A Tale of Truth."[72]
Canadian Indigenous literature	E. Pauline Johnson[73][74]	For "her impact of Indigenous writers"[73] due in part to "[writing] a critique of the treatment of First Nations women in her article: "A Strong Race Opinion: the Indian Girl in Modern Fiction," in which she protested the obvious racism in the novels about First Nations women."[74]
Canadian literature	Margaret Atwood[75] Margaret Laurence[76]	Atwood: For "[seeming] capable of embracing and exposing the truth of the darkness that lurks in the shadows of our world[, s]he and her work are as relevant as ever."[75] Laurence: For "having given eloquent voice to the Manitoba prairie in her “Manawaka” series, [as well as speaking] for the tribes of all humankind—women, the old, and the oppressed everywhere."[76]
Canadian poetry	Isabella Valancy Crawford[77]	For being the first to attempt the "arduous intellectual journey," that "her verse [must trek the wide] distance to be traversed from the servile copy to the work which, though it may originate in a fertile hint of method or suggestion of thought in some foreign source, is still the authentic utterance of a single mind."[77]
Costa Rican poetry	Eunice Odio[78][79]	For being "the country’s most significant international literary presence."[78]
English literature	Geoffrey Chaucer[80] Frances Burney[81]	Chaucer: For writing The Canterbury Tales.[80] Burney: For being considered as such by Virginia Woolf, in part "for advancing the popularity of the courtship novel and the possibility of women being considered as novelists of worth."[81]
English poetry	Geoffrey Chaucer[56]
Epic poetry	Homer[56]
American film criticism	Pauline Kael[82]	For being "probably the most qualified critic in the world," per Jerry Lewis.[82]
Finnish written language	Mikael Agricola[83]
German literature	Gotthold Ephraim Lessing[56]
Grammar	Pāṇini[84]	Wrote the Ashtadhyayi
Greek tragedy	Aeschylus[56]
Harlem renaissance	Alta Douglas (née Sawyer)[85] Jessie Redmon Fauset[86][87] Zora Neale Hurston[88]	Douglas: For her "death had a special meaning… Alta and Aaron Douglas had formed the warm human center of a group of gifted black young men and women who had come together for the first time in New York… her passing marked definitely 'the closing of the ring' on the Harlem Renaissance," as considered by Arnold Rampersad.[85] Fuaset: For being "a teacher, the Literary Editor of The Crisis, and the author the celebrated There is Confusion, Fauset showed serious promise as a leading and impactful voice,"[86] as well as "selecting the works of...Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Mary Effie Lee and Jean Toomer for publication."[87]
Modern Hebrew language	Eliezer Ben Yehuda[89]
Horror	Mary Shelley[90]	Wrote Frankenstein[90]
Italian language	Dante Alighieri[91]
Italian literature	Dante Alighieri[91]
Indology	Al-Biruni[92]
Letters (messages)	Francis I of France[56]
Linguistics (early)	Pāṇini[93]	Wrote the Ashtadhyayi
Linguistics (modern)	Ferdinand de Saussure[94][95] Noam Chomsky[96][97]
Modern fantasy literature	J. R. R. Tolkien[98]
Modernist literature	Gertrude Stein[99]	For the "[incorporation of the] stream-of-consciousness and experimental narrative techniques," into her work.[99]
Novel	Homer[100]
Nuyorican literature	Esmeralda Santiago	For writing When I Was Puerto Rican, considered by Oprah's Book Club as "one of the “Best Memoirs of a Generation”."[101][102]
Puerto Rican literature	Concha Meléndez[103] Alejandro Tapia y Rivera[64][104]
Science fiction	Octavia E. Butler[b][105] Ursula K. Le Guin[c][106] Mary Shelley Lucian of Samosata[107] Jules Verne[108][109] H. G. Wells[108][109]
Science fiction magazine	Hugo Gernsback[110]
Spanish language	Antonio de Nebrija[111]
Spanish literature	Carmen Balcells[112] Miguel de Cervantes[113]	Balcells: For being the literary agent of Spanish-language authors from Spain and Latin America, including six Nobel Prize–winning authors and one of the main promoters of the Latin American Boom. Cervantes: For writing Don Quixote.[113]
Spanish travel literature	Egeria[114]	For writing Itinerarium Egeriae ("Travels of Egeria"), the first record of a Christian pilgrimage in the 4th century.[114]
Urdu	Maulvi Abdul Haq[115]
Venezuelan literature	José Antonio Ramos Sucre[116]
Venezuelan poetry	José Antonio Ramos Sucre[116]

Law

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Civil law	Justinian I
Legal writing education	Marjorie D. Rombauer[117][118]	For "[writing] the first legal writing textbook, Legal Problem Solving: Analysis, Research, and Writing in 1970,"[117] and through her "[teaching] at the University of Washington School of Law for over thirty years [as] the first non-librarian, tenured female faculty member,"[117] her "works on legal problem solving, research, writing, and analysis informed generations of law students."[118]
European patent law	Kurt Haertel[119][120]
International law	Alberico Gentili[121] Francisco de Vitoria Hugo Grotius	For speculating on human rights and the proper relations that ought to exist between nations
Russian jurisprudence	Semyon Efimovich Desnitsky[122]	Russian social and political theorist (18th century)
United States Constitution	James Madison[123]	He played a large role in its drafting and ratification. One of the authors of The Federalist.[124] Also drafter of the Bill of Rights.

Music

See also: Honorific nicknames in popular music

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
American music	Stephen Foster[125]	Recognized internationally for his compositions which are still being performed in various venues. His most notable works include Oh Susanna, Camptown Races and Old Folks at Home.
American piano manufacture	Jonas Chickering[126]
Blues	Ma Rainey[127]
Bluegrass music	Bill Monroe[128]
Chicago blues / electric blues	Muddy Waters[129]
Contemporary a cappella	Deke Sharon[130][131]
Country music	Jimmie Rodgers[132][133][134]
Death metal	Chuck Schuldiner[135][136][137]
Disco	Mel Cheren (Godfather)[138]
	Giorgio Moroder[139]
English cathedral music	Thomas Tallis[56]
Funk	George Clinton ("Godfather")[140]
Gospel music	Thomas A. Dorsey[141]
Gothic rock	Peter Murphy ("Godfather")[142][143]
G-Funk	Dr. Dre[citation needed]
Greek music	Terpander[56]
Grunge	Neil Young[144]
Heavy metal	Ozzy Osbourne/Tony Iommi[145][146]	Both are also known as "godfathers of heavy metal".
Italo disco	Alexander Robotnick (Godfather)[147]
Punk rock	Patti Smith (godmother)[148]
Jazz	Buddy Bolden[149] Jelly Roll Morton[150] Theodore August Metz[151]
Modern jazz piano	Earl "Fatha" Hines[152]
Puerto Rican music	Manuel Gregorio Tavárez[153][154]
Reggae	Frederick "Toots" Hibbert[citation needed]
Rock and roll	Chuck Berry Ike Turner[155]
Rock music in China	Cui Jian[156]
Soul music	James Brown (godfather)[157]
Symphony and string quartet	Joseph Haydn[158][159][160]
Thrash metal	James Hetfield[161]
Venezuelan music	Simón Díaz[162] Antonio Lauro[163] Vicente Emilio Sojo[164]

Performance art

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Kabuki	Izumo no Okuni
Vogue	Willi Ninja[165]	Godfather[166][167]

Philosophy and religion

See also: List of founders of religious traditions and Church Fathers

Subject	Father / mother	Reason
Alt-right	Paul Gottfried[d][168][169] Michelle Malkin[e][170] Richard B. Spencer[171]
Anarchism	Mikhail Bakunin[172] Emma Goldman[173] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon[174]
Antifeminism	Phyllis Schlafly[175]
Christian asceticism	Syncletica of Alexandria[176]
Authoritarianism	Indira Gandhi[177]	For her declaration of The Emergency.
Behaviorism	John B. Watson[178]
Chinese democracy	Wei Jingsheng[179]
Comparative religion	Max Müller[180][181]
Conservatism	Edmund Burke[182]
Cynicism (school of thought)	Diogenes of Sinope[183]
Epicureanism	Epicurus[183]
Epistemology	Xenophanes[184]
Existentialism	Simone de Beauvoir[185] Søren Kierkegaard[186]
Fascism	Benito Mussolini Margherita Sarfatti[f][187][188]	For being "Benito Mussolini's mistress, [becoming] his ideological companion, [planning] the 'March on Rome' with him, [writing] articles in his name, [editing] the Fascist Party organ and [writing] his first official biography."[187]
Faith missions	Anthony Norris Groves[189]
Feminism	Mary Wollstonecraft[190][191]
Humanism	Petrarch[192][193]
Islamic logic	Al-Farabi[194]
Liberalism	John Locke[195][196][197] Baruch Spinoza[198]
American libertarianism	Rose Wilder Lane[199] Isabel Paterson[200] Ayn Rand[200]	Lane: For "reigniting a passion for liberal ideas in her numerous columns alongside her masterwork, The Discovery of Freedom."[199] Paterson: For "[opposing] most of the New Deal programs being instituted by Franklin D. Roosevelt[, advocating] for less government involvement in social and fiscal issues[, and going] on to write "The God of the Machine," a defense of individualism as the source of social and political progress.[200] Rand: For claiming the "libertarians as "plagiarists of [her] ideas.""[200]
Logical positivism	Moritz Schlick[201]
Methodism	John Wesley[202]
Moral philosophy	Thomas Aquinas[56]
Objectivism	Ayn Rand[203]
Positivism	Clotilde de Vaux[204]
Protestantism (Lutheranism)	Martin Luther[205]Katharina Zell[206]	Zell: For her "prolific work [been considered] as some of the Reformation period’s exemplary writings."[206]
Religious tolerance	Anne Hutchinson[207]
Scholasticism	John Scotus Eriugena[208] Lanfranc of Canterbury[208] Anselm of Canterbury[208] Peter Abelard[208]	Book: Sic et Non
Scholasticism (Protestant)	Hugo Grotius[209]
Socialism	Karl Marx[210] Robert Owen[211]Christa Wolf[g][212]
Thomism	Thomas Aquinas[56]
Transcendentalism	Mary Moody Emerson[213] Ralph Waldo Emerson Margaret Fuller[214] Anne Hutchinson[215] Henry David Thoreau	Moody Emerson: for instilling in her nephew to "look within, reflect, but [to] do it with much reading, study."[213] Fuller: For living "her entire life [with] courageous and intellectually brilliant forays into finding better answers, answers tempered by both triumphs and travails."[214] Hutchinson: For being "a healer and a preacher of a gentle, optimistic religion of the heart...[which] culminated in a cultural revolt."[215]
Zionism	Theodor Herzl[216]

Notes

1. Referred to as the "Godmother".
2. Referred to as the "Queen Mother".
3. Referred to as the "Queen Mother".
4. Described as the "godfather" of the alt-right
5. Referred to as the "Den Mother".
6. Referred to as the "Jewish Mother".
7. Referred to "as a kind of "supermother"."