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 * {{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