Yale University, United States
Prof. Dr. Jay Winter, Emeritus
Charles J. Stille Professor of History, Emeritus
Department of History
Official University Profile: Yale University – Jay Winter
Expertise: Modern European History; First World War; War and Society; Cultural History; History and Memory; British History; European Intellectual History; Holocaust Studies; Comparative History.
Member of Editorial Board of European Hebrew Journal
CURRICULUM VITAE
Academic Profile
Prof. Dr. Jay Winter is Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and one of the world’s foremost historians of the First World War and modern European history. Throughout his distinguished academic career he has taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Warwick, the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, and Yale University.
His scholarship has transformed the study of war, remembrance, and collective memory by integrating cultural history, social history, demography, literature, and visual culture. His research explores the profound impact of war on societies, the ways nations commemorate conflict, and the relationship between violence, memory, and identity.
Beyond academia, Prof. Winter has made major contributions to public history. He served as co-producer, co-writer, and chief historian of the award-winning PBS/BBC documentary series The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century, which received Emmy, Peabody, and Producers Guild Awards.
QUALIFICATIONS
1966
B.A., Columbia University.
1970
Ph.D., University of Cambridge.
2000
Litt.D., University of Cambridge.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
Lecturer in Modern History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1970–1973).
Lecturer in Social History, University of Warwick (1973–1979).
University Lecturer in Modern History, University of Cambridge (1979–2001).
Fellow, Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Professor of History, Columbia University (2000–2001).
Charles J. Stille Professor of History, Yale University (2001–2015).
Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University.
Professor, European University Institute (2005–2006).
Research Professor, Monash University.
Honorary Professor, Australian National University.
RESEARCH
Prof. Winter’s research focuses on twentieth-century European history, especially the First World War and its enduring political, social, and cultural consequences. His work investigates war memory, mourning, remembrance, civilian experiences of conflict, demographic change, humanitarianism, and the cultural legacy of warfare.
A major aspect of his scholarship examines how societies construct memory after mass violence through monuments, rituals, literature, museums, and public commemorations. His interdisciplinary approach has reshaped the fields of war studies, memory studies, and modern European history.
His more recent research explores the civilianization of war, post-war reconstruction, peace movements, and global cultures of remembrance.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Modern European History
British History
First World War
War and Society
History and Memory
Cultural History
Collective Memory
Remembrance Studies
Holocaust Studies
Historical Demography
Humanitarian History
Comparative History
Twentieth-Century Europe
Public History
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP
Charles J. Stille Professor Emeritus, Yale University.
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Founder of the Historial de la Grande Guerre Research Centre, Péronne, France.
Member of the French Presidential Commission for the Centenary of the First World War.
Honorary Professor, Australian National University.
PRIZES AND AWARDS
Emmy Award.
Peabody Award.
Producers Guild of America Award.
Victor Adler Prize for Lifetime Achievement in History.
Honorary Doctorates from the University of Graz, KU Leuven, and the University of Paris.
Howard R. Lamar Award for Distinguished Service to Yale Alumni.
PUBLICATIONS
Selected Publications
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History. Cambridge University Press.
Remembering War: The Great War between History and Memory.
Dreams of Peace and Freedom: Utopian Moments in the Twentieth Century.
The Cambridge History of the First World War. (Editor, three volumes).
War Beyond Words: Languages of Remembrance from the Great War to the Present.
The Day the Great War Ended, 24 July 1923: The Civilianization of War.
René Cassin and the Rights of Man. (with Antoine Prost).
Numerous articles and edited volumes on modern European history, war memory, cultural history, remembrance, and twentieth-century political history.