Dr. Edward L. Ayers
Edward Ayers is the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He has written and edited eight books. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (1992), a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, was named the best book on the history of American race relations and on the history of the American South. In the Presence of Mine Enemies, War in the Heart of America 1859-1863 (2003) is based on the Valley of the Shadow, a large website that is one of the most honored innovations in the teaching of history over the last decade.
Ayers, recipient of many teaching awards, was in 2003 named the National Professor of the Year for doctoral and research universities by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Ayers has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, has served as the Fulbright Commission's John Adams Professor of American Studies in the Netherlands, and received a presidential appointment to the National Council on the Humanities.
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