WVU Professor Robert Blobaum has been selected as the Eberly Family Professor of History. He replaces Ronald L. Lewis, who was named the inaugural Stuart and Joyce Robbins Chair in History last year.


“Dr. Blobaum is a historian of national and international acclaim, and I am pleased to reward his accomplishments through this appointment,”said M. Duane Nellis, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.


Blobaum joined the WVU History Department faculty in 1984 as an assistant professor of central and east European history. He was promoted to associate professor in 1987, and to full professor in 1995. During the past 18 years he has served the department as director of graduate studies and as interim chair.


“This is certainly the highest honor my university has bestowed on me, and I fully intend to live up to the responsibilities contained in a distinguished professorship, that is, to do my part to enhance the national reputation of West Virginia University and to provide my students with a level of instruction that will allow them to compete successfully with their peers as other quality institutions of higher education,”Blobaum said.


His research focuses on early 20th century Polish politics and society. He is currently involved with two projects. He is directing an international research project on antisemitism in 19th- and 20th-century Poland, and he is completing an individual research project on Polish society on the eve of World War I.


“Im involved in challenging and rethinking historical narratives,”says Blobaum.”At the same time I try to promote and explore new areas of research on rural Polish society, women, ethnicity, and crime.”


Blobaum has written two books. The first, a study on the origins of Polish communism, was published in 1984 through the East European Monograph Series of the Columbia University Press. The second book focuses on the Revolution of 1905 in Poland. Published by the Cornell University Press in 1995, the work was recognized as the best book of Polish history for the year and earned Blobaum the Oskar Halecki Prize.


“Obviously Im quite excited about being named the Eberly Family Professor of History. I believe it represents a wonderful opportunity to pursue my research agenda, to focus and refine my teaching, and to recruit graduate students to WVU in the field of modern European history,”Blobaum said.