John Gillis (historian)

John R. Gillis is Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University.

Gillis in 2010

Education

Gillis received his B.A. from Amherst College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University under the direction of Gordon A. Craig.

Personal

Gillis is married to Christina Mardsen Gillis, author of Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life.[1]

Academic work

Gillis' early work was largely in social and cultural history. He began as a German historian, moved to British history, and then to age relations, marriage, memory, and the cultures of European and American family life. He later moved on to global history, with an emphasis on cultural geography and environmental history.

In 2004 he published Islands of the Mind, on the role played by islands in the economic, political, and social dimensions of Atlantic world and the way the myths, images, and narratives of islands function for mainland cultures.

Gillis subsequently began studying the history and geography of coasts and coastal peoples. In his 2012 book The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History, he begins with the first humans to approach the shore, tracing coastal migrations around the world, and discussing the ways that coasts and coastal people have figured in globalization over several centuries. The book concludes with an assessment of the current crisis of coasts when faced with the effects of climate change, treating coasts as an ecotone that encompasses both land and water. The book was published by the University of Chicago Press. [2]

Gillis retired from Rutgers University in 2005 and since that time has lived in Berkeley, California while spending summers on Great Gott Island, off Acadia National Park in Maine. There he is involved with the Island Institute, in Rockland, Maine. He has published six books and edited four others.

Academic advising

Gillis was an active and highly respected doctoral adviser, steering eleven students to their PhDs at Rutgers.[3] These former advisees include:

Professional affiliations

Gillis is a current member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Family History and Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research, and a past editorial board member of the Journal of Modern History. He has taught at Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley, has been a visiting fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.

He is a member of the American Association of University Professors, the American Historical Association, and the World History Association. He was the former national co-chair of the Council on Contemporary Families.

Books

As editor:

Awards and recognition


References

  1. "Writing on Stone Scenes from a Maine Island Life". http://www.upne.com/1584656972.html. External link in |website= (help);
  2. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, "The Coastal Consciousness of John Gillis" The Chronicle of Higher Education July 29, 2013 The Chronicle Review
  3. "ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text Database".
  4. "Laura Tabili". http://africana.arizona.edu/person/dr-laura-tabili. External link in |website= (help);
  5. "Kelly Boyd". http://www.history.ac.uk/about/kelly-boyd. External link in |website= (help);
  6. "Deborah Cornelius". http://deborahscornelius.com/. External link in |website= (help);
  7. "Tammy Proctor". http://history.usu.edu/htm/about/faculty-directory/USERNAME=A01962746/. External link in |website= (help);
  8. "Benjamin Lammers". http://faculty.caldwell.edu/blammers/. External link in |website= (help);
  9. "ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text Database".
  10. "Patrick McDevitt". http://www.history.buffalo.edu/people/mcdevitt.shtml. External link in |website= (help);
  11. "ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text Database".
  12. "Charles Upchurch". http://history.fsu.edu/People/Faculty-by-Name/Charles-Upchurch. External link in |website= (help);
  13. "Lia Paradis". http://www.sru.edu/academics/colleges/chfpa/history/Pages/DrLiaParadis.aspx. External link in |website= (help);
  14. "ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text Database".

External links

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