Leora Auslander (born 1959) is an American historian, best known for being Professor of European Social History and the Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Life and career

Originally from New England, Auslander's travels outside the United States and jobs as a woodworker have deeply influenced her intellectual development and choice to go study history. Her parents were professors of mathematics - Bernice L. Auslander at

University of Massachusetts at Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. ...

and

Maurice Auslander Maurice Auslander (August 3, 1926 – November 18, 1994) was an American mathematician who worked on commutative algebra, homological algebra and the representation theory of Artin algebras (e.g. finite-dimensional associative algebras over a fiel ...

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. Auslander received her A.B. from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1979, her A.M from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1982 and her Ph.D. from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1988, where she studied under Joan W. Scott. She joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1987, and, after receiving tenure, was promoted to the rank of full professor. Auslander's work has been supported by prestigious fellowships at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

(1992–93) and the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research institution at Stanford University designed to advance the frontiers of knowledge about human behavior and society, and contribute to the resoluti ...

(1995–96) in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. From 1996 to 1999, Auslander served as Director of the for

Gender Studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

at the University of Chicago. Leora Auslander was a Berthold Leibinger Fellow at the ''

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

'', Germany, for Fall 2008. She specializes in the history of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, focusing on 19th and 20th century social history; material culture and

consumption Consumption may refer to: * Eating *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically known as consumption * Consumer (food chain), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of n ...

; gender history and theory; Jewish history; and the history of colonial and

post-colonial Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and thei ...

Europe. Auslander also has plans for a future project on the architectural and urban history of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

. She is primarily known for her work on material culture entitled ''Taste and Power,'' which details the history of interior design within modern France.

Works

* * *

References

External links

Academic Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Auslander, Leora Historians of Europe Historians of France University of Michigan alumni Harvard University alumni Brown University alumni University of Chicago faculty 1959 births Living people American women historians Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers