historian

11May

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India, Noteworthy, Profiles

Hari Vasudevan, historian

Harishankar Vasudevan, a professional historian who was a specialist on Russian and European history, and Indo-Russian relations, died after contracting COVID-19 on May 10, 2020, at a private health facility in Kolkata, India. He was 68. Son of an aeronautical engineer at the Defence Science Organisation (later Defence Research and Development Organisation) Methil Vasudevan and Sreekumari Menon, Professor Vasudevan — “Hari” to all — grew up in many places in India, Europe and Africa. He had just finished a memoir, largely focussed on life of his mother, who passed away recently. After completing studies at Cambridge University in the early 1970s, Prof. Vasudevan settled in Kolkata as a Reader in European History at Calcutta University. He set up the Central Asia programme at Jamia ...

30Apr

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Italy, Noteworthy, Profiles

Germano Celant, art historian

Germano Celant -- an Italian art historian, critic and curator who coined the term "Arte Povera" (poor art) in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject -- died after suffering from Covid-19 on April 29, 2020. He as 79. Germano Celant was born in Genoa. He attended the University of Genoa, where he studied history of art with Eugenio Battisti. In 1963 he worked as assistant editor for Marcatrè, a Genoa-based magazine about architecture, art, design, music and literature founded by Rodolfo Vitone, Eugenio Battisti, Paolo Portoghesi, Diego Carpitella, Maurizio Calvesi, Umberto Eco, Vittorio Gelmetti and Edoardo Sanguineti. In 1967, his manifesto of Arte Povera, Notes for a Guerilla, was published in Flash Art. The concept of Arte Povera seemed to be that in Italy art was...

15Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

William Henry Gerdts Jr., art historian

William Henry Gerdts Jr. an American art historian and professor of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center. Gerdts was the author of over twenty-five books on American art died of complications of the COVID-19 virus, aged 91, on April 14, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. An expert in American Impressionism, he was also well known for his work on nineteenth-century American still life painting. Gerdts was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Beginning in 1945 he attended Amherst College. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst in 1949, Gerdts attended Harvard Law School, but after four days switched to the Department of Fine Arts. There he earned a master's degree in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1966. Gerdts' professional positions included that of Cura...

13Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, Spain

Carlos Seco Serrano, historian

Carlos Seco Serrano ‑ a Spanish historian who specialised in the contemporary era – passed away in Madrid on 12 April 2020 after contracting Covid-19. He was 96. Born in Toledo, Seco Serrano was elected to medalla nº 12 of the Real Academia de la Historia on 21 January 1977 and took up his seat on 5 February 1978.

8Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Henry Graff, historian

Henry Franklin Graff - an American historian who served on the faculty of Columbia University from 1946 to 1991, including a period as Chairman of the History Department – died on 7 April,2020 due to COVID-19. Graff specialized in the history of the Presidency of the United States and of American foreign relations. His pioneering “Seminar on the Presidency,” one of Columbia’s most popular courses, was attended by President Harry Truman in 1959 and President Gerald Ford in 1989. Graff has twice served as Chairman of the Pulitzer Prize jury in American history. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Graff to the National Historical Publications Commission, and in 1993 President Bill Clinton appointed Graff to the President John F. Kennedy Assassina...

7Apr

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France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Jacques Le Brun, historian

Jacques Le Brun ‑ a French historian who specialized in the study of Christianity in the 17th century – died on 6 April 2020 after suffering from coronavirus. Le Brun's first works were related to Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet. He was Director of Honorary Studies at the École pratique des hautes études, and the Chair of History of Modern Catholicism at the school. In addition to his research, he also edited the works of François Fénelon. Jacques Le Brun died on 6 April 2020 at the age of 88 after contracting Covid-19.

6Apr

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France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Michel Parisse, historian

Michel Parisse -- a French historian who specialized in medieval studies died on 5 April 2020 at the age of 83 due to COVID-19. He was a professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Parisse earned his agrégation in history in 1959. He earned two doctoral degrees, with the first coming in 1966. His thesis was titled Actes des évêques de Metz (1120-1179). His second doctoral degree came in 1975, with the thesis La noblesse lorraine (xie – xiiie siècle). He was a professor at Nancy 2 University from 1965 to 1993. He was the Director of ARTEM from 1983 to 1993, which conducted research on medieval texts and their meanings. He directed the French Historical Mission in Germany from 1985 to 1991, and then wo...

30Mar

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France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Francis Rapp, historian

Francis Rapp ‑ a French medievalist specializing in the history of Alsace and medieval Germany – succumbed to Covid-19 on 29 March 2020. An emeritus university professor, he was a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres since 1993. Born in Strasbourg, the son of lawyer Léon Rapp, Rapp was born into a Catholic and patriotic family. He did his secondary studies at the Jean Sturm Gymnasium and practiced scouting within the Scouts de France. Breaking with forced incorporation, he joined a clandestine scouting group that gathered about twenty young people at the Mont Sainte-Odile from December 1942. At the end of the 1960s he joined the Association des Guides et Scouts d'Europe and was commissioner of the Alsace Province ...

Maurice Berger, cultural historian curator & art critic

24Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Maurice Berger, cultural historian curator & art critic

Maurice Berger ‑ an American cultural historian, curator, and art critic, who served as a Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County ‑ died due to presumed complications of a coronavirus disease on March 23, 2020. Berger was recognized for his interdisciplinary scholarship on race and visual culture in the United States. He curated a number of important exhibitions examining the relationship between race and American art, including the critically-acclaimed For All The World To See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights co-organized in 2011 by the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution and the Center for Art, Design &...