History & Art History

Peter Stearns received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Founder and Editor of the Journal of Social History, he is also a prolific author, having published The Battleground of Desire: The Struggle for Self-Control in Modern America; Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in Western Society; Gender in World History; American Fear: the Causes and Consequences of High Anxiety; and most recently, Revolutions in Sorrow: A History of American Experiences and Policies Toward Death in Global Context. Dr. Stearns also is editor of the 6-volume Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000. He is active in several professional organizations, including the American Historical Society, the Society of French Historical Studies, the Social Science History Association, and the International Society for Research on Emotion. Dr. Stearns is the current president of the Toynbee Society

He is currently provost and history professor at George Mason University, bringing to those positions nearly 40 years of professional experience in higher education, both as a teacher and an administrator.

Modern European and American and comparative social history; history of emotions; world history