Susan Pedersen (historian)
Encyclopedia
Susan Pedersen is a historian
, and James P. Shenton Professor of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University
. Pedersen focuses on 19th and 20th century British history, women's history, settler colonialism
, and the history of international institutions.
, she received both her B.A. (1982) and Ph.D (1989) from Harvard University
, where she was also a professor and served as the university's Dean of Undergraduate Education. In the latter position, she defended the university against charges of excessive grade inflation
.
Pedersen joined the Columbia faculty in 2003. Among her works is a biography of Eleanor Rathbone
.
She is currently writing a book on the mandate system
of the League of Nations
; in 2005 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
to assist with research on this project.
Susan Pedersen was Bosch Fellow in Public Policy at the American Academy in Berlin
, for Spring 2009.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, and James P. Shenton Professor of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Pedersen focuses on 19th and 20th century British history, women's history, settler colonialism
Settler colonialism
Settler colonialism is a specific colonial formation whereby foreign family units move into a region and reproduce. Land is thus the key resource in settler colonies, whereas natural and human resources are the main motivation behind other forms of colonialism...
, and the history of international institutions.
Life
Born a Canadian citizen and raised in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, she received both her B.A. (1982) and Ph.D (1989) from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where she was also a professor and served as the university's Dean of Undergraduate Education. In the latter position, she defended the university against charges of excessive grade inflation
Grade inflation
Grade inflation is the tendency of academic grades for work of comparable quality to increase over time.It is frequently discussed in relation to U.S. education, and to GCSEs and A levels in England and Wales...
.
Pedersen joined the Columbia faculty in 2003. Among her works is a biography of Eleanor Rathbone
Eleanor Rathbone
Eleanor Florence Rathbone was an independent British Member of Parliament and long-term campaigner for women's rights. She was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool.-Life:...
.
She is currently writing a book on the mandate system
League of Nations mandate
A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
; in 2005 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
to assist with research on this project.
Susan Pedersen was Bosch Fellow in Public Policy at the American Academy in Berlin
American Academy in Berlin
The American Academy in Berlin is a research and cultural institution in Berlin whose stated mission is to foster a greater understanding and dialogue between the people of the United States and the people of Germany.The American Academy was founded in September 1994 by a group of prominent...
, for Spring 2009.
Works
- Caroline ElkinsCaroline ElkinsCaroline Elkins is a professor of History at Harvard University. She studies the colonial encounter in Africa during the twentieth century, and the British treatment of the Kikuyu in Kenya....
, Susan Pedersen (eds) Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0415949246, 9780415949248 - "Hannah More Meets Simple Simon: Tracts, Chapbooks, and Popular Culture in Late Eighteenth-Century England," Journal of British Studies 25 (January 1986): 84-113.
External links
- NPR interview with Susan Pedersen on grade inflation at Harvard
- http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/112.4/pedersen.html