Scholars Trickling into History

The decade-long hiring drought in the American wing of the History Department appears to have ended.

This summer President Derek C. Bok extended tenure offers to two outside scholars of 19th century American history, and one of them has already accepted his post.

William E. Gienapp, an expert on 19th century party politics who formerly taught at the University of Wyoming, will begin teaching here this spring. Although his Harvard appointment begins this fall, he is taking a leave to continue work on an interactive computer program designed to teach undergraduates modes of historical inquiry.

Drew G. Faust, a professor from the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in the antebellum South, has said that she will decide this fall whether or not to accept her Harvard position.

Charles Rosenberg, her husband, also has a Harvard tenure offer from the History of Science Department.

Last spring, Akira Iriye, an international historian from the University of Chicago whose subspecialties include American history, received a lifetime post from the department.

Before Iriye's acceptance, no Americanist had accepted a senior post at Harvard since Dubois Professor of History and Afro-American Studies Nathan I. Huggins left Columbia for Cambridge in 1980.

An even longer drought in the department may also end this fall. No junior professor has been tenured from within the department in almost 20 years, and morale among untenured faculty members has traditionally been very low.

But last spring the department voted to tenure a historian of African history--one of the two final candidates for the lifetime post was Associate Professor of History H. Leroy Vail.

Should Vail gain approval from the group of outside scholars who will convene this fall to give a final recommendation to Bok, his success could break the promotions barrier.

In the end, though, it will be Bok's decision whether to tenure Vail and end junior history professors' decades-long losing streak.