Corinna Treitel, a professor and chair of history in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was installed March 28 as the university’s William Eliot Smith Professor in History.
The program included a welcome from Feng Sheng Hu, the Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences and the Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor, and an introduction by Peter Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Professor.
Treitel studies German-speaking Europe from 1800 to the present and teaches courses on modern German and European history; on the world history of health and disease; and in the new interdisciplinary area of health humanities. She is the author of two books: “Eating Nature in Modern Germany: Food, Agriculture, and Environment, c.1870-2000” (2017) and “A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern” (2004).
Her current book project, “Gesundheit! Seeking German Health, 1750-2000,” explores changing ideas and practices of health in German lands since the mid-18th century. Treitel co-leads Science in the Public Square, a program of the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences strategic plan. She also co-founded the medical humanities minor in Arts & Sciences.
Smith was an Illinois businessman and philanthropist who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from WashU in 1864 and 1867, respectively. The professorship was established in 1921 by his widow, Alice E. Smith.
Read more on the Arts & Sciences website.
