Elizabeth Anne Fenn (born September 22, 1959) is an American historian. Her book ''
Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People'', won the 2015
Pulitzer Prize for History
The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...
. She serves as the
Walter S. and Lucienne Driskill chair in Western American History at
University of Colorado-Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...
.
Career
Fenn received a bachelor of arts degree in history (with honors) from
Duke University in 1981, then attended
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, finishing her masters in 1985. Fenn originally planned to write her dissertation on
millenarianism in Native American culture, but left her doctoral program at Yale before it was finished, as she was "bored" with academia. Fenn entered the auto mechanic program at
Durham Technical Community College and worked as a mechanic around the
Durham, North Carolina area for eight years before returning to Yale in 1995 to complete her studies. ''Pox Americana'', her dissertation about the
1775–82 North American smallpox epidemic, was written while working part-time, and completed in 1999.
Fenn was interviewed on multiple national news outlets about biological warfare after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
.
Fenn won the 2004
Cox Book Prize for her work ''Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782''. She received the Public Scholar Award from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
in 2019.
Prior to joining the
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
in 2012, Fenn taught at
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
from 1999 to 2002 and Duke from 2002 to 2012.
[
She married Peter H. Wood in 1999.]
Works
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References
External links
Faculty page
at UC-Boulder
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenn, Elizabeth
1959 births
Living people
American women historians
20th-century American historians
21st-century American historians
Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Yale University alumni
Duke University faculty
George Washington University faculty
University of Colorado Boulder faculty
Pulitzer Prize for History winners
Historians of Native Americans
Mechanics (people)
Durham Technical Community College alumni
Writers from Riverside, California
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
Historians from California