Harriet Ritvo is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who specializes in

British history The British Isles have witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and ...

, particularly

environmental history Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...

and the history of natural history. Ritvo is the Arthur J. Connor Professor of History at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

and a member of the Program in Science, Technology and Society, and she was the head of MIT's History Faculty from 1999-2006.MIT History Department Faculty biography: Harriet Ritvo http://web.mit.edu/hnritvo/www/ritvo.htm

Biography

Early life

Harriet Ritvo was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and received her

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. She also studied at

Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

Career

Harriet Ritvo joined the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

as a lecturer in the Humanities Department in 1979 and was promoted to assistant professor in 1980. In 1985, she was promoted to associate professor and then full professor in 1987. She has been teaching as the Arthur J. Connor Professor of History at MIT since 1995. From 1999-2006, Ritvo served as the head of the History Faculty at MIT as well as the director of Graduate Studies for the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS) program from 2011-2013 and 2017-2018. She was on the Humanities jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to r ...

from 2016 to 2018. Ritvo has been a

Visiting Fellow In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at Clare Hall at Cambridge University, as well as at

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. Since 2016, Ritvo has served as a trustee of the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Publications

Ritvo has published books on the history of British

scientific classification Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of animals and of the roles of animals in Victorian culture. ''Ritvo is the author of the following books'': *''The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age'' (Harvard UP, 1987) *''The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination'' (Harvard UP, 1997) *''The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism'' (Chicago UP, 2009) *''Noble Cows and Hybrid Zebras: Essays on Animals and History'' (Virginia, 2010) ''Ritvo was the editor of'': *''Charles Darwin's The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) ''Ritvo was a co-editor of'': *''Macropolitics of Nineteenth-Century Literature: Nationalism, Imperialism, Exoticism'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991)

Periodicals

Ritvo has written articles and reviews on British cultural history and environmental history in such

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also example ...

s as ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...

'', ''Science'', ''

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, a ...

'', ''

The American Scholar "The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his gro ...

'', ''

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

'', and ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', as well as scholarly journals in several fields.

Recognition

Ritvo received a Whiting Award for nonfiction writing in 1990 following her first book, ''The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age'' (1987). In 2008, she was a recipient of the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

Graduate Society Award, which is awarded to Harvard and Radcliffe graduate alumnae who have made significant contributions in their field.

Notes

External links

MIT History Faculty biographyPersonal WebsiteProfile at The Whiting Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritvo, Harriet Historians of science Historians of the British Isles Environmental historians MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty 1946 births Living people Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni Presidents of the American Society for Environmental History