Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History at Cornell University, received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She teaches courses in the history of exploration, early America, women s history, Atlantic world and American Revolution. Her many books have won awards from the Society of American Historians, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and English-Speaking Union. Her book, FOUNDING MOTHERS & FATHERS, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2011 her book SEPARATED BY THEIR SEX: WOMEN IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE IN THE COLONIAL ATLANTIC WORLD was published. She was the Pitt Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge in 2005-2006. The Rockefeller Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation and Huntington Library, among others, have awarded her fellowships. Dr. Norton has served on the National Council for the Humanities and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has appeared on Book TV, the History and Discovery Channels, PBS and NBC as a commentator on Early American history.
Jane Kamensky earned her B.A. and Ph.D. in history from Yale University. She is the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Her most recent book, A REVOLUTION IN COLOR: THE WORLD OF JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, won four major awards and was a finalist for several others awards. A former commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, she serves as a trustee of the Museum of the American Revolution. She is also one of the principal investigators on the NEH/Department of Education-funded initiative, Educating for American Democracy.
Carol Sheriff received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. from Yale University. She has taught at the College of William and Mary since 1993, where she has received the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, the Alumni Teaching Fellowship Award and the University Professorship for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Sheriff teaches a U.S. history survey course and an introduction to historical methodology as well as classes on the early republic, the Civil War era, and the American west. She has co-authored A PEOPLE AT WAR: CIVILIANS AND SOLDIERS IN AMERICA S CIVIL WAR, 1854-1877 and has written THE ARTIFICIAL RIVER: THE ERIE CANAL AND THE PARADOX OF PROGRESS, which earned the Dixon Ryan Fox Award from the New York State Historical Association and the Award for Excellence in Research from the New York State Archives. Dr. Sheriff has published pieces about the history of textbooks, written sections of a teaching manual for the New York State history curriculum and given presentations to public school teachers. She has also worked on public history projects marking the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, appeared in documentaries on the Erie Canal, and is involved in public and scholarly projects to commemorate the Erie Canal s bicentennial.
David W. Blight received his B.A. from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He is the Sterling Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. In 2019 he won the Pulitzer Prize in history for his work, FREDERICK DOUGLASS: PROPHET OF FREEDOM. He has also written FREDERICK DOUGLASS S CIVIL WAR and RACE AND REUNION: THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICAN MEMORY, 1863-1915, which received eight awards, including the Bancroft Prize, the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize and four prizes awarded by the Organization of American Historians. His book, A SLAVE NO MORE: THE EMANCIPATION OF JOHN WASHINGTON AND WALLACE TURNAGE earned three awards. Dr. Blight has edited or co-edited six other books, and his essays have appeared in numerous journals. In 2013-2014 he was the Pitt Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge. A consultant to several documentary films, Dr. Blight appeared in the 1998 PBS series, Africans in America, and has served on the Council of the American Historical Association. In 2023 he will serve as president of the Organization of American Historians.
Howard P. Chudacoff is the George L. Littlefield Professor of American History and Professor of Urban Studies at Brown University. He earned his A.B and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has written MOBILE AMERICANS; HOW OLD ARE YOU; THE AGE OF THE BACHELOR; THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN URBAN SOCIETY (with Judith Smith); CHILDREN AT PLAY: AN AMERICAN HISTORY; and CHANGING THE PLAYBOOK: HOW POWER, PROFIT, AND POLITICS TRANSFORMED COLLEGE SPORTS. He has also co-edited MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN URBAN HISTORY. His articles have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Family History, Reviews in American History, the Journal of Sport History and the Journal of American History. At Brown University, Dr. Chudacoff has co-chaired the American Civilization Program and chaired the department of history. He currently serves as Brown s faculty representative to the NCAA. Dr. Chudacoff has also served on the board of directors of the Urban History Association. He has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, all of which have given him awards to advance his scholarship.
