Susan Pedersen (historian)


Susan Pedersen is a Canadian 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.

Life

Born a Canadian citizen and raised in Japan, she received her B.A. from Radcliffe College and both her M.A. and Ph.D 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 also recently completed 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.

Works