curriculum vitae
Guy Ortolano
History Department | New York University | 53 Washington Square South | New York NY 10012 | ortolano[at]nyu.edu
EMPLOYMENT
Since 2020 Professor of History, NYU
2012-2020 Associate Professor of History, NYU
2009-2012 Assistant Professor of History, NYU
2008-2009 Assistant Professor of History, University of Virginia
2005-2008 Assistant Professor of History, Washington University in St. Louis
APPOINTMENTS
2022-2023, Visiting Professor, King’s College London
2023, Faculty Fellow, NYU London
2012, Visiting Scholar, St John’s College, Oxford University
2007-2008, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University
2006, British Studies Fellow, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas
2003-2005, Society of Fellows, Northwestern University
2001-2002, Visiting Scholar, Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Imperial College London
1997-1998, Postgraduate Fellow, Friedrich-Alexander University (Erlangen, Germany)
EDUCATION
2005, Ph.D, Northwestern University
1999, M.A., Northwestern University
1997, B.A., University of Georgia
BOOKS
Thatcher’s Progress: From Social Democracy to Market Liberalism through an English New Town (Cambridge, 2019).
Best Book in Non-North American Urban History, Urban History Association
Inaugural volume in the CUP monograph series, “Modern British Histories”
The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain (Cambridge, 2009).
Whitfield Prize, proxime accessit, Royal Historical Society
Paperback, 2011; Japanese translation, 2019; Chinese translation in progress
PRIZES
2024, Teaching Innovation Award, NYU Faculty of Arts and Science
2021, Best Book in Non-North American Urban History, for Thatcher’s Progress, Urban History Association
2018, Golden Dozen Teaching Award, NYU College of Arts and Science
2016, Walter D. Love Prize, for “The Typicalities of the English?”, North American Conference on British Studies
2012, Runner-up, Walter D. Love Prize, for “Planning the Urban Future in 1960s Britain,” North American Conference on British Studies
2010, Runner-up, Whitfield Prize, for The Two Cultures Controversy, Royal Historical Society
2006, Runner-up, Ivan Slade Prize, for “Human Science or a Human Face?”, British Society for the History of Science
2005, Harold Perkin Dissertation Prize, Northwestern University
1997, BA summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Highest Honors, with Honors in History, University of Georgia
1996, Joe Brown Connally Award, Department of History, University of Georgia
FELLOWSHIPS
2018, Astor Visiting Lecturer, St John’s College, Oxford University
2012-2013, Charles A. Ryskamp Felllowship, American Council of Learned Societies
2011, Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society
2009, Bernadotte Schmitt Grant, American Historical Association
2006, British Studies Fellow, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, Texas
2003-2005, Presidential Fellow, Northwestern University
2002-2003, Josephine de Karman Fellowship
1998-1999, History and Philosophy of Science Fellowship, Northwestern University
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
“British History and the Fate of National Historiographies,” Modern British History 35:1 (2024): 18-21.
“Urbanism after the Victorian City,” in The Modern British City, eds. Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler, and Otto Saumarez Smith (London: Lund Humphries, forthcoming).
“Begrudging Neoliberalism: Housing and the Fate of the Property-Owning Social Democracy,” in The Neoliberal Age? Politics, Economy, Society, and Culture in Twentieth Century Britain, eds. Aled Davies, Ben Jackson, and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (University College London Press, 2021), 319-335.
“Breaking Ranks: C. P. Snow and the Crisis of Mid-Century Liberalism, 1930-1980,” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 41:2-3 (2016): 118-132.
“The Typicalities of the English? Walt Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth, and Modern British History,” Modern Intellectual History 12 (November 2015): 657-684.
“Planning the Urban Future in 1960s Britain,” Historical Journal 54 (2011): 477-507.
“The Literature and the Science of ‘Two Cultures’ Historiography,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39 (2008): 143-150.
“‘Decline’ as a Weapon in Cultural Politics,” Penultimate Adventures with Britannia, ed. Wm. Roger Louis (London: I. B. Tauris, 2008), pp. 201-214.
“F. R. Leavis, Science, and the Abiding Crisis of Modern Civilization,” History of Science 43 (2005): 161-185.
“Human Science or a Human Face? Social History and the ‘Two Cultures’ Controversy,” Journal of British Studies 43 (2004): 482-505.
“Two Cultures, One University: The Institutional Origins of the ‘Two Cultures’ Controversy,” Albion 34 (2002): 606-624.
“The Role of Dorcas in ‘Roger Malvin’s Burial’,” Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 25 (1999): 8-16. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism: Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers, vol. 190, ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau (New York: Layman Poupard, 2014), pp. 94-97.
REVIEWS
American Historical Review, Cercles, Contemporary British History, Cultural and Social History, English Historical Review, European Legacy, H-Net Reviews, Isis, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Modern History, Modern British History, Planning Perspectives, Reviews in History, Twentieth Century British History, Urban History
KEYNOTE LECTURES
2020, University of Warwick, “The Peculiarities of the Welfare State.”
2018, King’s College London, “Begrudging Market Liberalism.”
2013, Leicester University, “Exporting Britain’s New Towns.”
2011, Fordham University, “British New Towns and the Unmaking of Mid-Century Modernism.”
+ ACADEMIC LECTURES at Baruch College, Berkeley, Bristol, Brown, Cambridge, Columbia, Cornell, Edinburgh, Harvard, Imperial College London, The India Club (London), King’s College London, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Ludwig Maximilian University (Germany), Manchester, Misericordia, Newberry Library, Northwestern, NYU, NYU London, Oxford, Stanford, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wash U, Wisconsin, York
+ PUBLIC TALKS at Buckinghamshire History Festival, UK Ministry of Housing, Communities, & Local Government, MK Gallery, Smithsonian, Times Radio, Twentieth Century Society
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2024-, Chair, History Department
2023-2024, NYU Site Director & Board Member, Global Urban History Project
2021, Search committee for NYU’s new Dean of the College of Arts and Science
2020-, International Board, Modern British History
2020-, Associate Editor, Journal of British Studies
2019-2022, MA Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, NYU
2017-2019, NACBS Pre-Dissertation and Dissertation Fellowships (Chair, 2019)
2015-2019, Co-editor, Twentieth Century British History (now Modern British History)
2015-2025, Co-founder and co-director, New York-Cambridge Training Collaboration (NYCTC)
2013-2015, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of History, NYU
2011-2013, NACBS Undergraduate Essay Prize (Chair, 2013)
Frequently since 2011, Chair, University Seminar in British History, Columbia University