Sociologist and anthropologist David Kertzer, a 2015 recipient of the Presidential Faculty Award, will deliver a lecture on his research on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. in the John Carter Brown Library.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — David Kertzer, the Paul R. Dupee Jr. University Professor of Social Science, professor of anthropology and Italian studies, will deliver the Presidential Faculty Award Lecture on his work on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. The lecture begins at 4:30 p.m. in the John Carter Brown Library and is open to the public.

The Presidential Faculty Award was established by President Christina Paxson to recognize members of the faculty who are conducting especially important and innovative scholarship and to create an opportunity for recipients to present their work to colleagues in other disciplines. Two recipients are chosen for the academic year, one for each semester. Jill Pipher, the Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor of Mathematics and director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, will be honored in the spring semester.

David Kertzer

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author for his 2015 book The Pope and Mussolini, Kertzer joined the Brown faculty in 1992. He was appointed provost in 2006, serving until 2011. Kertzer founded the Anthropological Demography Program, linking the Department of Anthropology to the Population Studies and Training Center. He was also founding director of the Politics, Culture, and Identity research program of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

A Brown alumnus, Kertzer received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University in 1974. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at Bowdoin College from 1989 to 1992. He served as president of the Social Science History Association and president of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe. He co-edited the book series New Perspectives on Anthropological and Social Demography for Cambridge University Press. Kertzer twice (1984, 1989) won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the best book in Italian history. He co-founded and for a decade co-edited the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome.

His book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. His 2001 book, The Popes Against the Jews, has been published in nine languages. In 2005 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.