After four years as one of Quincy House’s most popular and outspoken residents, Timothy P. McCarthy ’93 is getting restless.

McCarthy—a resident tutor and lecturer in History and Literature whose strong liberal views have earned him notoriety on campus—will leave Harvard this June to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for the Study of the American South.

McCarthy, known for his hands-on teaching style and involvement in social activism on campus, has been a vocal critic of the University.

Among other issues, he laments what he calls inadequate focus on the humanities by the current administration.

He is a ubiquitous presence at campus political rallies and protests.

“I like to speak out from my little space at Harvard,” McCarthy said. “I have devoted my life to perpetual criticism.”

Big Man on Campus

McCarthy has cultivated close, intimate relationships with his colleagues and students.

For the past two years, McCarthy has led students on Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trips to the South, where they rebuilt black churches burnt down by white supremacist groups.

Josiah M.Pertz ’03, who participated in one such trip, is one of three students writing his senior thesis under McCarthy’s auspices.

“Tim knows this place inside and out,” Pertz said. “He is a versatile member of the community.... He is not just a teacher, but a leader and a friend.”

Last year, McCarthy was rewarded for his commitment to teaching, receiving the Stephen Botein teaching prize, awarded annually to teachers in the History and Literature concentration.

John Stauffer, associate professor in History and Literature, co-taught English 176A, “American Protest Literature,” with McCarthy last spring, and says he considers McCarthy one of his closest friends.

“I think he is an absolutely brilliant scholar and teacher, one of the best at Harvard,” Stauffer said. “There are going to be hundreds of students that will be very sorry to see him leave.”

McCarthy said one of his favorite moments at Harvard came at the class’s final meeting last spring, when his students and teaching fellows brought flowers to their two instructors.