The Department of History matches a rigorous course of study with excellent teaching, the vast majority of which is conducted by tenure-line faculty. We are proud that our faculty includes twenty-one winners of the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and awards for originality in research including five MacArthur Fellowships. Meet our faculty most recently honored for their outstanding teaching and research here!
Quantrell Award, 2022: Johanna Ransmeier
Professor Ransmeier teaches the types of courses she would like to take herself. "It’s a cliché to say this, but teaching is an integral part of scholarship," said Ransmeier, noting that she plays the role of tour guide, detective, interpreter, sometimes sparring partner or debate coach. "The classroom offers opportunities to think together, to debate and—perhaps above all—to listen to each other and to the sources. As an instructor, it’s important that I foster a safe environment for students to experiment and interact in this way." Ransmeier joins several other Quantrell winners who are currently offering courses in the History Department: Emily Lynn Osborn (2016), Matthew Briones (2015), Adam Green (2011), Amy Dru Stanley (2009), Rachel Fulton Brown (2007), Edward Cook Jr. (2003), Moishe Postone (1999), Kathleen Conzen (1995), Jan Goldstein (1988), and Robert Richards (1982).
MacArthur Fellow, 2014: Tara Zahra
The MacArthur Foundation praised Zahra, a historian of Central and Eastern Europe, for "challenging the way we view the development of the concepts of nation, family, and ethnicity and [for] painting a more integrative picture of twentieth-century European history. With conceptual and empirical rigor, Zahra's writings combine broad sociohistorical analysis with extensive archival work across a wide range of locales." Zahra joins other History Department MacArthur Fellows Ramón Gutiérrez (1983), Cornell Fleischer (1988), Thomas Holt (1990), and Noel Swerdlow (1998).