From Yale University
Jaroslav PelikanJaroslav Pelikan
Sterling Professor of History Emeritus
Jaroslav Pelikan is an internationally distinguished scholar of the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history. He joined the Yale faculty in 1962 as the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History and in 1972 was appointed to the Sterling Professorship. He served as acting dean and then dean of the Graduate School 1973-78 and was the William Clyde DeVane Lecturer 1984-86 and in the fall of 1995. His more than 30 books include the acclaimed five-volume work The Christian Tradition. His numerous awards include the Graduate School's 1979 Wilbur Cross Medal and the Medieval Academy of America's 1985 Haskins Medal. In 1983 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Professor Pelikan to deliver the 12th annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor conferred by the federal government for outstanding achievement in the humanities. In 1992-93 he presented the Guifford Lectures in Scotland, an honor considered comparable to winning the Nobel Prize. He has been editor of the religion section of Encyclopedia Britannica, and in 1980 he founded the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. His numerous professional affiliations also includes the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he is president. Two years ago President Bill Clinton appointed Professor Pelikan to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
