British Historian Joins History Faculty

Associate Professor of History Susan G. Pedersen '82 confirmed last night that she accepted an offer of tenure in the Department of History yesterday.

"It's a wonderful job," Pedersen said. "I've been in the history department for a long time. There are some things I'd like to accomplish there."

Pederson's tenure is the third this year in a department that has been criticized for its weak undergraduate program.

Laurel Ulrich, who teaches colonial and women's history, and Andrew Gordon '75, a Japanese labor history specialist, have also been tenured this year.

Another tenure is expected in the field of 20th-century American history later this semester, chair of the history department Thomas N. Bisson said last month.

Pedersen, a modern British historian, is on leave this year working on two projects--a study of British colonial policy between the two world wars and a biography of Eleanor Rathbone, and early 20th-century British social reformer.

"I'm using her life as a way of exploring some of the key involvements of that generation of politically active women," said Pedersen, who received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1989.

Pedersen said the decision she and her husband, Associate Professor of Government Thomas Erunan '80, made to stay at Harvard rather than go to the University of California at Berkeley--where she also had a tenure offer--was a difficult one.

"I thought that there was a lot that I could do for British history in this department," said Pedersen, who is in her seventh year in the department. "It struck me as a challenge and a great opportunity."

"It's concerned me that there hasn't been a senior modern British historian in the history department," she said.

The offer to Pedersen is unusual in that she is being promoted from within the department. She is the second woman tenured in the department this year.

"I'm delighted that the department did make an effort to promote internally," Pedersen said. "I think it should happen more often."

"I'm also hopeful that the department will move in the direction of promoting junior faculty and hiring more women," she said.

Pedersen, 35, said younger schools are sometimes in the process of doing their most interesting and productive work.

"It's good for the department to take some risks on people who are a little bit younger because they bring a great deal of vitality of the department," she said.