NORMAN – Paul Gilje, University of Oklahoma professor of history, was selected as the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic’s first president from the Big 12 at the society’s annual meeting in July. Gilje will serve as president-elect for the 2007-2008 year and ascend to the presidency the following year. 

Gilje, who joined the faculty of the OU College of Arts and Sciences in 1994, specializes in teaching colonial and revolutionary U.S. history and has published eight books and numerous articles on the subject.  He was awarded the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Best Book Prize for 2004 for his book Liberty on the Waterfront, has been named a Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Presidential Professor at OU and was named Centennial Historian of the City of New York in 1999.

“I look upon my becoming president elect of SHEAR as one of the greatest honors of my career,” said Gilje.  “I not only see it as recognition of my accomplishments as a historian, but also a reflection of the confidence that my colleagues have in my leadership abilities.  This position has a very special meaning for me because I gave my first academic paper at a SHEAR meeting in 1980.  From that moment to this I have viewed SHEAR as an incredible venue for scholarship and a place where graduate students and junior scholars can meet and interact professionally with senior colleagues.  There are not many historical organizations where someone just beginning their career can interact with Pulitzer Prize winners – and SHEAR is that kind of place.  To be president-elect and next year president of the organization means that I have the opportunity to serve this community and work to ensure that this unique atmosphere will continue into the future.”

Established in 1977, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic is an association of scholars dedicated to exploring the events and the meaning of U.S history between 1776 and 1861.  Past presidents have included three Pulitzer Prize winners Alan Taylor, Jack Rakove and Gordon S. Wood. 

The society is based in four Philadelphia historical institutions: the American Philosophical Society, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Library Company of Philadelphia and McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The Journal of the Early Republic, the publication of the society, also is based in Philadelphia and is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. 

For more information on the Society for Historian of the Early American Republic, visit their Web site at www.shear.org.