University Professorships are a university-wide award to honor truly outstanding faculty scholars, whose contributions to the University community might lie somewhat outside the system of traditional disciplinary recognition and reward. The title is conferred upon outstanding scholars whose work reflects exceptional breadth and some of whose work is interdisciplinary. Because of this interdisciplinary dimension, the title of “University Professor” carries a somewhat different meaning at NYU than similar titles carry at other universities.
| Professor | First Appointed |
| Anthony Amsterdam (LAW) | September 2001 |
| Hillary Ballon (WAG)) | May 2008 |
| Thomas Bender (FAS) | September 1980 |
| Jerome Bruner (FAS, LAW) | September 1998 |
| Craig Calhoun (FAS) | September 2004 |
| Dalton Conley (FAS) | September 2005 |
| Manthia Diawara (FAS) | September 2002 |
| Denis Donoghue (FAS) | September 1990 |
| Hartry Field (FAS) | September 2006 |
| Carol Gilligan (ED, LAW) | July 2002 |
| Tony Judt (FAS) | September 2005 |
| Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (TSOA) | January 2002 |
| Joseph LeDoux (FAS) | January 2005 |
| David Levering Lewis (FAS) | September 2003 |
| Clemente Marconi (IFA) | November 2007 |
| Arthur Miller (LAW, SCPS) | September 2007 |
| Thomas Nagel (FAS, LAW) | September 2002 |
| Richard Schechner (TSOA) | September 1991 |
| Samuel Schleffer (FAS) | June 2008 |
| Richard Sennett (FAS) | September 1979 |
| Anna Deavere Smith (TSOA, LAW) | September 2001 |
| Robert Stam (TSOA) | January 2002 |
| Richard B. Stewart (LAW) | September 2002 |
| Catharine R. Stimpson (FAS, LAW) | November 1997 |
| Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (ED) | September 2004 |
| Diana Taylor (FAS) | May 2008 |
| Tom Tyler (FAS, LAW) | September 2002 |
| Jerome C. Wakefield (SSW) | September 2003 |
| Jeremy Waldron (LAW) | September 2006 |
| Joseph H. H. Weiler (LAW) | September 2002 |
| Deborah Willis (TSOA) | September 2004 |