David McGonagle, acting chair of the department, hired Frank Mantello in 1979. In 1980, Daniel Sheerin, who had previously served on the faculty during the early 1970s, was rehired as department chair, and remained in that position for five years. Upon Sheerin's departure in 1985, Frank Mantello became chair and was able to gain three new faculty positions for the program, resulting in the hiring of William McCarthy, John Petruccione, and William Klingshirn. Linda Safran was added to the faculty in 1989, and the six full-time faculty members (Halton, Mantello, Klingshirn, McCarthy, Petruccione, and Safran) served together until Thomas Halton's retirement and promotion to Professor Emeritus in 2000. The position of chair was rotated twice during the 1990s, with William Klingshirn taking over from Frank Mantello in 1992, succeeded by Linda Safran from 1998-2003.

Upon his retirement, Thomas Halton (d. 2013) was replaced by Eustratios Papaioannou, who began teaching at CUA in fall 2000. In fall 2002, Sarah Ferrario was hired by Linda Safran as an adjunct instructor in the department; she continued to teach part-time for the next two academic years.

Linda Safran departed Catholic University in 2003, and William Klingshirn served as chair for the following year. In 2004, Frank Mantello became department chair once more, and Eustratios Papaioannou left the department.  Dr. Papaioannou's former position was temporarily filled by Sarah Ferrario, who joined the faculty full-time in 2006.  In June 2008, Prof. Klingshirn became chair again and served two terms before being succeeded by the current chair, Dr. Ferrario.

Prof. Mantello retired and was named Professor Emeritus in 2016. In fall 2016, Dr. Fabio Pagani joined the faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor; he became Assistant Professor in 2017.