April 2019

David Blight wins Pulitzer Prize for 'Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom'

David Blight, the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition was honored in the history category for his new biography on Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author, and public speaker. Titled “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” Blight’s book was lauded for being “a breathtaking history that demonstrates the scope of Frederick Douglass’ influence through deep research on his writings, his intellectual evolution and his relationships.”

Mark Peterson appointed the Morgan Professor of History

Mark Allen Peterson, recently named as the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History, is a specialist in early North America and the Atlantic world.

Peterson joined the Yale faculty in July 2018. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, and taught previously at the University of Iowa and at the University of California-Berkeley, where he was chair of the Department of History. 

In Memoriam: David Brion Davis, Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned historian of slavery

David Brion Davis, Yale Sterling Professor of American History Emeritus and preeminent scholar on the history of slavery and abolition, died on April 14 of natural causes. He was 92.

Davis was the founding director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, which was established at Yale in 1998. In 1978, he was awarded a Sterling Professorship — the highest honor bestowed on Yale faculty — in recognition of his groundbreaking work in bringing slavery to the forefront of the study of American history. 

Alexander Zhang has been named a 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow

Zhang will continue his legal history work while completing a J.D. at Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in history at the university. His scholarship will bridge constitutional law with ethnic studies, examine the relationships between legal concepts understood by courts and legal concepts understood by everyday people, and synthesize African American, Native American, Latinx, Asian American, and Pacific Islander histories.

Publishing with University Presses: A Conversation with Jaya Chatterjee

Publishing with University Presses, a conversation with Jaya Chatterjee of Yale University Press
 
Thursday, April 11 at 3:30, Phelps 207.
 
Following the interest generated by Robert Weil (W. W. Norton) who spoke in January about trade press publishing, we are glad to have an editor from Yale Press who can give us an orientation to what university presses are looking for, how they evaluate manuscripts and what people at YUP see as the future of scholarly publishing.