Simon Michael Schama

Professor Simon Schama is a Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University, where he has taught there since 1993. Before Columbia, Schama had teaching experience at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge for the beginning of his career. His research is centered on the British Empire, English and French art and politics, the Gothic Revival in England, Ruskin, and Victorian culture. His first work, "Patriots and Liberators", won the Wolfson History Prize and Leo Gershoy Award, which helped accelerate his career. Since then, Schama has written 17 books, that have received awards such as New York Times Best Books of the Year, Yorkshire Post Book Award, Lionel Trilling Book Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Writer's Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Writer's Award, Hessell-Tiltman Prize Shortlist, and NCR Book Award. His 3 volume series of "A History of Britain" would later become a BBC documentary series that was Emmy nominated. He has also been a writer-presenter in two films on Rembrandt, a five part series based on "Landscape and Memory", a film on Tolstoy, a ninety minute adaptation of "Rough Crossings", and most recently the eight part series "The Power of Art". Professor Schama also served as an art critic for "The New Yorker" for 3 years, but still continues to contribute essays on art to the magazine.