In Memory of Edward L. Keenan

April 13, 2015
Edward L. Keenan

The CMES community mourns the passing of Edward L. “Ned” Keenan, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History Emeritus who died on March 6, 2015 at his home in Deer Isle, Maine at the age of 79. Keenan spent much of his adult life at Harvard, receiving his A.B. degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1957, his A.M. in Regional Studies in 1962, and his Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies in 1962. He was a Lecturer on History before being granted tenure in the History Department in 1970. After becoming an emeritus faculty member in 2008, he remained extremely active, and was the Andrew W. Mellon Research Professor of History until 2011. In addition to his outstanding scholarship in the field of Russian medieval history, he served in various Harvard leadership positions, including long stints as the Director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Department Chair of History, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences for Graduate Ed, and Director of the Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies). A longtime CMES affiliate, Keenan served in leadership roles multiple times in the 1980s and 1990s as the Director, and acting Director, of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Related:

  • "In Memoriam: Edward L. Keenan," Jan M. Ziolkowski, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin, Department of the Classics, Harvard University
  • "In Memoriam: Edward L. Keenan," Michael S. Flier, Oleksandr Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University