2008 Woodie Awards
Dr. Schrecker to Take Sabbatical, Will Only Return Part-Time
Year-long Fellowhip first step towards esteemed professor's retirement.
Paul Adam
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: News
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Dr. Ellen Schrecker has accepted the Frederick Ewen Academic Freedom fellowship at New York University's Tamiment Library and will be on leave from Yeshiva University for the academic year as she prepares for what she calls her "phased retirement." Upon returning to Yeshiva in 2008, she will be teaching no more than one course per semester.
Dr. Schrecker has taught at YU since 1987, first as an assistant, then professor of history, one of the longest tenures in the department. Over the years, she taught numerous courses, mostly pertaining to American political and cultural history, which recently included History of the Cold War, History of American Foreign Diplomacy, African-American History and the United States and Vietnam.
These courses were regarded highly by students and faculty as well taught and challenging, especially those which were Honors Program offerings. "She brings her own brings her own insightful historical analysis to the classroom and without being pedantic," said one former student, Yosef Lindell.
Typically, Dr. Schrecker would offer students the option of forgoing a midterm examination and several smaller essays to focus on one larger term paper instead, a boon to many academically minded students. "She has a reputation for a high level of scholarship and elicits the best from her students... many of whom have followed in her footsteps to do graduate work in History and related fields," said Yeshiva College Dean David Srolovitz of his colleague.
Schrecker was equally praiseworthy of Yeshiva University. "The students have been wonderful- every bit as good as the students I taught at Harvard and Princeton before I came to YU." Before joining Yeshiva, Dr. Schrecker taught in various fields at the two Ivy League Schools as well as at NYU and New School. She also completed her Masters and PhD at Harvard, focusing on Franco-American Relationships after the First World War.
Academically, Dr. Schrecker is a regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the McCarthyist era in American politics and culture and she is a frequent critic of its impact. During her tenure at YU, the field changed rapidly as declassified documents were released from the former USSR that challenged many historical and popular notions about Soviet-American relationships, particularly regarding intelligence and counter-intelligence.
"Espionage is not the main story of American communism and anticommunism. It is only part of a much more complicated story," wrote Schrecker in 2000 for the Journal of Cold War Studies. "If this were a legal case, guilt or innocence would suffice, but as historians, we need to go beyond such 'facts' and look at the broader context within which this espionage occurred."
Dr. Schrecker has written and edited several books on the Cold War in America, including Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America and Cold War Triumphalism: Exposing the Misuse of History after the Fall of Communism. While pursuing the fellowship at the Tamiment Library, Dr. Schrecker says she will be continuing work on two more works. "I need to finish my books before Alzheimers hits," she joked.
"I've enjoyed my teaching at Yeshiva... but it's time to move on," said Schrecker. Since hearing of Dr. Schrecker's impending retirement, the response to her professorial career has been overwhelming positive. "Students came back to her classes time and time again, because they saw the value in what they learned," said Dean Srolovitz. "This is the highest possible accolade for anyone who leads a class."
Dr. Schrecker has taught at YU since 1987, first as an assistant, then professor of history, one of the longest tenures in the department. Over the years, she taught numerous courses, mostly pertaining to American political and cultural history, which recently included History of the Cold War, History of American Foreign Diplomacy, African-American History and the United States and Vietnam.
These courses were regarded highly by students and faculty as well taught and challenging, especially those which were Honors Program offerings. "She brings her own brings her own insightful historical analysis to the classroom and without being pedantic," said one former student, Yosef Lindell.
Typically, Dr. Schrecker would offer students the option of forgoing a midterm examination and several smaller essays to focus on one larger term paper instead, a boon to many academically minded students. "She has a reputation for a high level of scholarship and elicits the best from her students... many of whom have followed in her footsteps to do graduate work in History and related fields," said Yeshiva College Dean David Srolovitz of his colleague.
Schrecker was equally praiseworthy of Yeshiva University. "The students have been wonderful- every bit as good as the students I taught at Harvard and Princeton before I came to YU." Before joining Yeshiva, Dr. Schrecker taught in various fields at the two Ivy League Schools as well as at NYU and New School. She also completed her Masters and PhD at Harvard, focusing on Franco-American Relationships after the First World War.
Academically, Dr. Schrecker is a regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the McCarthyist era in American politics and culture and she is a frequent critic of its impact. During her tenure at YU, the field changed rapidly as declassified documents were released from the former USSR that challenged many historical and popular notions about Soviet-American relationships, particularly regarding intelligence and counter-intelligence.
"Espionage is not the main story of American communism and anticommunism. It is only part of a much more complicated story," wrote Schrecker in 2000 for the Journal of Cold War Studies. "If this were a legal case, guilt or innocence would suffice, but as historians, we need to go beyond such 'facts' and look at the broader context within which this espionage occurred."
Dr. Schrecker has written and edited several books on the Cold War in America, including Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America and Cold War Triumphalism: Exposing the Misuse of History after the Fall of Communism. While pursuing the fellowship at the Tamiment Library, Dr. Schrecker says she will be continuing work on two more works. "I need to finish my books before Alzheimers hits," she joked.
"I've enjoyed my teaching at Yeshiva... but it's time to move on," said Schrecker. Since hearing of Dr. Schrecker's impending retirement, the response to her professorial career has been overwhelming positive. "Students came back to her classes time and time again, because they saw the value in what they learned," said Dean Srolovitz. "This is the highest possible accolade for anyone who leads a class."