Pittsburgh Review

Christopher Phillips, a professor of history, will be the next head of the Department of History in Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Phillips succeeds Nico Slate, who has served as department head since 2020 and will step down on June 30.

“I am enormously grateful to Nico Slate for leading the History Department through the COVID crisis, for advancing the department generally and for being a wonderful colleague,” said Dietrich College’s Bess Family Dean Richard Scheines. “Chris is an eminent historian of science, an interdisciplinary scholar who collaborates easily with other departments in Dietrich and across the university, and I love his vision for the future.”

Phillips will take parental leave in fall 2024 and begin his tenure as department head on January 1, 2025. After Slate steps down this summer, Allyson Creasman, an associate professor of history, will act as interim head.

“I am grateful for the support Dean Scheines has shown the department of history, and I am excited about the future of a department that has long incorporated Dietrich College’s strengths in both the humanities and the social sciences,” Phillips said. “As recent events keep reminding us, there is a huge need for more understanding of the history of political conflicts, the lingering effects of migration and racism, and the ways everyday people have responded to an increasingly technological and often dehumanized contemporary world.”

CMU’s History Department is known for its approach to making connections between the past and present and for showing how history helps explain social, cultural, and political change. The department offers three undergraduate programs: bachelor’s in social and political history; bachelor’s in global studies; and bachelor’s in ethics, history, and public policy (joint with the Department of Philosophy). The department’s doctoral program focuses on social history related to science and environment.

Phillips joined CMU's History Department in 2015 and has served as its director of graduate studies. His research centers on modern American science history with a focus on mathematical methods. He authored “The New Math: A Political History” and “Scouting and Scoring: How We Know What We Know About Baseball.”

Phillips’ current project examines statistics' role in medicine from 1930s-1970s. Supported by NIH grants including a National Library of Medicine G13 grant, he researched this topic as a National Library of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Fellow in History of Medicine.

Phillips earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University after completing a master’s at Cambridge University. Before joining CMU faculty ranks he taught at New York University's Gallatin School.