Steven M. Zdatny has been named chair of West Virginia Universitys Department of History in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Zdatny has been serving as a professor and director of graduate studies in the department.

I am very pleased to have been named chair of the Department of History,Zdatny said.My goals are simple. I will work to burnish the departments well-earned reputation for first-rate teaching and excellent scholarship and continue to expand its relations within both the University and the greater West Virginia community.

Zdatny earned his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982.

His teaching fields include modern France, the Holocaust and World War I. His research fields are modern French social and cultural history and the evolving practices and sensibilities of cleanliness in twentieth-century France.

He has written several articles and books, includingHairstyles and Fashion: A Hairdressers History of Paris, 1910-1920andThe Politics of Survival: Artisans in Twentieth-Century France.

Zdatny has also been the recipient of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Research Award.

I look forward to working with Dr. Zdatny as chair of the Department of History,said Mary Ellen Mazey, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.I have confidence that he will continue to build the department’s national and international reputation.

For more information, contact Zdatny at szdatny@wvu.edu