David Blackbourn

Who is David Blackbourn?

David Gordon Blackbourn is Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches modern German and European history. Prior to arriving at Vanderbilt, Blackbourn was Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University and served as director of the university's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies from 2007-2012. He is on the editorial board of the journal Past & Present; the academic advisory board of the Institute for European History, Mainz; and the advisory board of the Friends of the German Historical Institute, Washington. He was chair of the Harvard History Department in 1998–1999 and 2000–2002, and was president of the Conference Group on Central European History of the American Historical Association in 2003–2004.

After completing his dissertation at Jesus College, Cambridge, Blackbourn became a lecturer at Queen Mary College in 1976 before joining the faculty of Birkbeck College in 1979. In 1992 he moved to the U.S. becoming a professor at Harvard. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.