# 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 | For "[inventing] an abstract vocabulary blending biomorphic and geometric forms," that predates Wassily Kandisky. |
| Animation | Lotte Reiniger Margaret J. Winkler | Reiniger: For making The Adventures of Prince Achmed, "[t]he first full-length animation movie of film history." Winkler: For being "one of the earliest female producers of animation, with international hits like the cartoon, Felix the Cat." |
| Anime | Ōten Shimokawa Jun'ichi Kōuchi Seitaro Kitayama | |
| Australian studio pottery | William Merric Boyd | |
| Cinematography | Alice Guy-Blaché | For being the first female film director and "among the first to employ techniques like close-ups, hand-tinted color, and synchronized sound. " |
| Dadaism | Beatrice Wood | For her involvement in the movement, which stemmed from her enjoyment of, upon her own admission, "being subversive." |
| Danish painting | Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard | |
| Fashion | Coco Chanel Jeanne Lanvin Vivienne Westwood | Chanel: For "revolutionizing how [people] dress, she helped form a new ideal of what a fashion brand could be." Lanvin: for founding "one of the oldest French fashion houses in operation today," through which she popularized the robe de style dress. 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." |
| Modern fashion photography | Norman Parkinson | For taking his models and photoshoots beyond the confines of the studio. |
| Modern French cooking | Eugénie Brazier | For her Lyonnaise-style of cooking, becoming the first woman to ever hold three Michelin stars 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." |
| French New Wave cinema | Agnès Varda | For "directing celebrated films including Cléo from 5 to 7, Happiness and The Creatures." |
| Gothic architecture | Abbot Suger | Built the first Gothic church at the Abbey of St Dennis |
| Harlem Renaissance (sculpture) | Augusta Savage | 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’." |
| Manga | Osamu Tezuka |
| Oil painting | Jan van Eyck | For experimenting with the medium to remarkable effect |
| Photojournalism | Mathew Brady | |
| Pop art | Richard Hamilton | |
| New Puerto Rican cuisine | Alfredo Ayala | "[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,"..."[becoming] the best ambassador of the island." |
| Scottish country dancing | Francis Peacock | |
| Spanish cuisine | Penelope Casas María Mestayer [es] | Casas: For "demonstrating the breadth of regional Spanish cuisine." 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." |
| Stop-motion clay animation | Art Clokey | |
| Surrealism | André Breton Dorothea Tanning | |

## Communication

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Spam | Gary Thuerk | Penned the first message that advertised the availability of a new model of Digital Equipment Corporation computers to 393 recipients on ARPANET in 1978. |

## Education

| Subject | Father / mother | Life span | Reason |
| Afghan education | Sakena Yacoobi | (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." |
| American education | Mary McLeod Bethune Horace Mann | (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. Mann: Advocated for common schools and nonsectarian education. |
| American Catholic education | Mary Elizabeth Lange | (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. |
| Argentinian education | Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Juana Paula Manso | (1811–1888) (1819–1875) | Sarmiento: For improving the country's education system. Manso: For educating women and advocating for their equal education. |
| Costa Rican education | Carmen Lyra | (1888–1949) | For founding the Escuela Maternal ('maternal school'), the first Montessori school in Costa Rica in 1925. |
| Dominican education | Salomé Ureña | (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. |
| Japanese language education in Romania | Angela Hondru | 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." |
| Namibian education | Ottilie Abrahams | (1937–2018) | For "[forming] the Namibian National Nationhood Programme, a consortium of NGOs working in the areas of education and agro-ecology." |
| Nicaraguan education | Josefa Toledo de Aguerri | (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.” |
| Paraguayan education | Rosa Peña Guanes | (1843–1899) | For founding twenty-four girls' schools and the National Asylum in Paraguay. |
| Early education in Peru | Emilia Barcia Boniffatti | (1904–1986) | For founding the first preschool in the Peruvian Amazonia. |
| Puerto Rican education | Jaime Benítez Rexach Celestina Cordero Rafael Cordero | (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 | (1916– 2000) | For founding "the Taif model school and the first girl's college in Saudi Arabia." |
| Tampa education | Electa Lee | (1808–1870) | For "[opening] what is believed to be the first local school," in Tampa. |
| Washington D. C. education | Myrtilla Miner | (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. |
| Western Cape education | Helen Zille | (born 1951) | For her "hands-on approach" tenure as Western Cape MEC for Education. |

## History

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| African-American history | Arturo Alfonso Schomburg | 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 | A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916. |
| Ecclesiastical history | Eusebius of Caesarea | Because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church |
| French history | André Duchesne | |
| Historiography | Ibn Khaldun | Muqaddimah (Prolegomena) (1377) |
| History | Herodotus Thucydides | The Histories History of the Peloponnesian War |
| History of science | George Sarton | Founded Isis (1912) and wrote Introduction to the History of Science (1927) |
| Modern history | Leonardo Bruni | |
| Philosophy of history | Ibn Khaldun | Muqaddimah (Prolegomena) (1377) |
| Public administration | Woodrow Wilson | "The Study of Administration" in Political Science Quarterly, June 1887. |
| Puerto Rican history | Salvador Brau Alejandro Tapia y Rivera | |

## Justice

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Criminal identification | Alphonse Bertillon | Created a database for criminals |
| Fingerprinting | Juan Vucetic | |

## Language and literature

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Modern African literature | Flora Nwapa | 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." |
| American folklore | Richard Dorson | |
| American literature | Mark Twain Ralph Waldo Emerson | 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 | For writing one of the "best-selling novels of the time...Charlotte, A Tale of Truth." |
| Canadian Indigenous literature | E. Pauline Johnson | For "her impact of Indigenous writers" 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." |
| Canadian literature | Margaret Atwood Margaret Laurence | 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." 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." |
| Canadian poetry | Isabella Valancy Crawford | 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." |
| Costa Rican poetry | Eunice Odio | For being "the country’s most significant international literary presence." |
| English literature | Geoffrey Chaucer Frances Burney | Chaucer: For writing The Canterbury Tales. 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." |
| English poetry | Geoffrey Chaucer | |
| Epic poetry | Homer | |
| American film criticism | Pauline Kael | For being "probably the most qualified critic in the world," per Jerry Lewis. |
| Finnish written language | Mikael Agricola | |
| German literature | Gotthold Ephraim Lessing | |
| Grammar | Pāṇini | Wrote the Ashtadhyayi |
| Greek tragedy | Aeschylus | |
| Harlem renaissance | Alta Douglas (née Sawyer) Jessie Redmon Fauset Zora Neale Hurston | 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. 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," 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." |
| Modern Hebrew language | Eliezer Ben Yehuda | |
| Horror | Mary Shelley | Wrote Frankenstein |
| Italian language | Dante Alighieri | |
| Italian literature | Dante Alighieri | |
| Indology | Al-Biruni | |
| Letters (messages) | Francis I of France | |
| Linguistics (early) | Pāṇini | Wrote the Ashtadhyayi |
| Linguistics (modern) | Ferdinand de Saussure Noam Chomsky | |
| Modern fantasy literature | J. R. R. Tolkien | |
| Modernist literature | Gertrude Stein | For the "[incorporation of the] stream-of-consciousness and experimental narrative techniques," into her work. |
| Novel | Homer | |
| 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”." |
| Puerto Rican literature | Concha Meléndez Alejandro Tapia y Rivera | |
| Science fiction | Octavia E. Butler Ursula K. Le Guin Mary Shelley Lucian of Samosata Jules Verne H. G. Wells | |
| Science fiction magazine | Hugo Gernsback | |
| Spanish language | Antonio de Nebrija | |
| Spanish literature | Carmen Balcells Miguel de Cervantes | 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. |
| Spanish travel literature | Egeria | For writing Itinerarium Egeriae ("Travels of Egeria"), the first record of a Christian pilgrimage in the 4th century. |
| Urdu | Maulvi Abdul Haq | |
| Venezuelan literature | José Antonio Ramos Sucre | |
| Venezuelan poetry | José Antonio Ramos Sucre | |

## Law

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Civil law | Justinian I | |
| Legal writing education | Marjorie D. Rombauer | For "[writing] the first legal writing textbook, Legal Problem Solving: Analysis, Research, and Writing in 1970," 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," her "works on legal problem solving, research, writing, and analysis informed generations of law students." |
| European patent law | Kurt Haertel | |
| International law | Alberico Gentili 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 | Russian social and political theorist (18th century) |
| United States Constitution | James Madison | He played a large role in its drafting and ratification. One of the authors of The Federalist. Also drafter of the Bill of Rights. |

## Music

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| American music | Stephen Foster | 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 | |
| Blues | Ma Rainey | |
| Bluegrass music | Bill Monroe | |
| Chicago blues / electric blues | Muddy Waters | |
| Contemporary a cappella | Deke Sharon | |
| Country music | Jimmie Rodgers | |
| Death metal | Chuck Schuldiner | |
| Disco | Mel Cheren (Godfather) | |
| Disco | Giorgio Moroder | |
| English cathedral music | Thomas Tallis | |
| Funk | George Clinton ("Godfather") | |
| Gospel music | Thomas A. Dorsey | |
| Gothic rock | Peter Murphy ("Godfather") | |
| G-Funk | Dr. Dre | |
| Greek music | Terpander | |
| Grunge | Neil Young | |
| Heavy metal | Ozzy Osbourne/Tony Iommi | Both are also known as "godfathers of heavy metal". |
| Italo disco | Alexander Robotnick (Godfather) | |
| Punk rock | Patti Smith (godmother) | |
| Jazz | Buddy Bolden Jelly Roll Morton Theodore August Metz | |
| Modern jazz piano | Earl "Fatha" Hines | |
| Puerto Rican music | Manuel Gregorio Tavárez | |
| Reggae | Frederick "Toots" Hibbert | |
| Rock and roll | Chuck Berry Ike Turner | |
| Rock music in China | Cui Jian | |
| Soul music | James Brown (godfather) | |
| Symphony and string quartet | Joseph Haydn | |
| Thrash metal | James Hetfield | |
| Venezuelan music | Simón Díaz Antonio Lauro Vicente Emilio Sojo | |

## Performance art

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Kabuki | Izumo no Okuni | |
| Vogue | Willi Ninja | Godfather |

## Philosophy and religion

| Subject | Father / mother | Reason |
| Alt-right | Paul Gottfried Michelle Malkin Richard B. Spencer | |
| Anarchism | Mikhail Bakunin Emma Goldman Pierre-Joseph Proudhon | |
| Antifeminism | Phyllis Schlafly | |
| Christian asceticism | Syncletica of Alexandria | |
| Authoritarianism | Indira Gandhi | For her declaration of The Emergency. |
| Behaviorism | John B. Watson | |
| Chinese democracy | Wei Jingsheng | |
| Comparative religion | Max Müller | |
| Conservatism | Edmund Burke | |
| Cynicism (school of thought) | Diogenes of Sinope | |
| Epicureanism | Epicurus | |
| Epistemology | Xenophanes | |
| Existentialism | Simone de Beauvoir Søren Kierkegaard | |
| Fascism | Benito Mussolini Margherita Sarfatti | 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." |
| Faith missions | Anthony Norris Groves | |
| Feminism | Mary Wollstonecraft | |
| Humanism | Petrarch | |
| Islamic logic | Al-Farabi | |
| Liberalism | John Locke Baruch Spinoza | |
| American libertarianism | Rose Wilder Lane Isabel Paterson Ayn Rand | Lane: For "reigniting a passion for liberal ideas in her numerous columns alongside her masterwork, The Discovery of Freedom." 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. Rand: For claiming the "libertarians as "plagiarists of [her] ideas."" |
| Logical positivism | Moritz Schlick | |
| Methodism | John Wesley | |
| Moral philosophy | Thomas Aquinas | |
| Objectivism | Ayn Rand | |
| Positivism | Clotilde de Vaux | |
| Protestantism (Lutheranism) | Martin LutherKatharina Zell | Zell: For her "prolific work [been considered] as some of the Reformation period’s exemplary writings." |
| Religious tolerance | Anne Hutchinson | |
| Scholasticism | John Scotus Eriugena Lanfranc of Canterbury Anselm of Canterbury Peter Abelard | Book: Sic et Non |
| Scholasticism (Protestant) | Hugo Grotius | |
| Socialism | Karl Marx Robert OwenChrista Wolf | |
| Thomism | Thomas Aquinas | |
| Transcendentalism | Mary Moody Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson Margaret Fuller Anne Hutchinson Henry David Thoreau | Moody Emerson: for instilling in her nephew to "look within, reflect, but [to] do it with much reading, study." Fuller: For living "her entire life [with] courageous and intellectually brilliant forays into finding better answers, answers tempered by both triumphs and travails." Hutchinson: For being "a healer and a preacher of a gentle, optimistic religion of the heart...[which] culminated in a cultural revolt." |
| Zionism | Theodor Herzl | |