Gerda Lerner

Gerda Lerner
Gerda Kronstein in 1981.
Born
Gerda Hedwig Kronstein

(1920-04-30)April 30, 1920
DiedJanuary 2, 2013(2013-01-02) (aged 92)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
EducationNew School (BA)
Columbia University (MA, PhD)
Spouses
Bobby Jensen
(m. 1939; div. 1940)
Carl Lerner
(m. 1941; died 1973)
Children2

Gerda Hedwig Lerner (née Kronstein; April 30, 1920 – January 2, 2013) was an Austrian-born American historian and woman's history author. In addition to her numerous scholarly publications, she wrote poetry, fiction, theatre pieces, screenplays, and an autobiography. She served as president of the Organization of American Historians from 1980 to 1981. In 1980, she was appointed Robinson Edwards Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she taught until retiring in 1991.[1]

Lerner was one of the founders of the academic field of women's history. In 1963, while still an undergraduate at the New School for Social Research, she taught "Great Women in American History", which is considered to be the first regular college course on women's history offered anywhere.[2]

She taught at Long Island University from 1965 to 1967. She played a key role in the development of women's history curricula and was involved in the development of degree programs in women's history at Sarah Lawrence College (where she taught from 1968 to 1979 and established the nation's first master's degree program in women's history) and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she launched the first Ph.D. program in women's history. She also worked at Duke University and Columbia University, where she was a co-founder of the Seminar on Women.[3]

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum, Hartmut Lehmann, James J. Sheehan (eds.), The Second Generation: Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians. With a Biobibliographic Guide. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016, ISBN 978-1-78238-985-9, pp.4, 8, 16, 244‒258, 406‒408 (including a short biography and bibliography).
  2. ^ Bauer, Patricia. "Gerda Lerner | biography - Austrian-born American writer and educator". Britannica.com. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  3. ^ "Lerner, Gerda, 1920–2013. Additional papers of Gerda Lerner, 1916–2013 (inclusive), 1963–2013 (bulk): A Finding Aid". oasis.lib.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2017.