Kathleen Kete

Kathleen Kete

Borden W. Painter, Jr., '58/H'95 Professor of European History

Kathleen Kete is the Borden W. Painter, Jr., '58/H'95 Professor of European History. In her teaching and in her research she has sought to broaden the field of history by including within its purview previously neglected but rich subjects of study. Her first book, The Beast in the Boudoir: Petkeeping in Nineteenth Century Paris (1994) helped create the thriving field of the cultural history of animals. This was followed by an edited volume, A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 (2007), volume five of a series which received an Outstanding Academic Title award from Choice Reviews. A second major project addressed the complicated history of attitudes towards ambition in French culture. Her book on this subject, Making Way for Genius: The Aspiring Self in France from the Old Regime to the New, was published in 2012. Currently, sheis writing a history of Geneva and the Alps in the eighteenth century provisionally titled, Becoming Visible: A History of the Alps in the Age of the French Revolution. These new research interests are brought to life in the classroom in courses on "The History of the Alps" and "Mountains and Oceans in European History." She also teaches courses on modern Europe and France, and a "History of Paris." More