Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is an American historian and Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee's Department of History.[1] She describes herself as wearing "... two hats, one as a historian of early modern Europe and the other as a world/global historian, with a primary focus on women, gender, and sexuality within these".
She is editor-in-chief of the seven-volume 2015 Cambridge World History, and co-editor of three of its parts: Volume 5: Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE with Benjamin Z. Kedar and Volume 6: The Construction of a Global World, 1400–1800 CE, Part 1: Foundations and Part 2: Patterns of Change with Jerry H. Bentley and Sanjay Subrahmanyam.[2]
She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and before moving to the University of Wisconsin she was an assistant professor at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, from 1979 to 1985.[3]
Wiesner-Hanks is a senior editor of The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies,[4] and an editor of the Journal of Global History.[5]
Her books include Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe; Gender in History: Global Perspectives; Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789; and A Concise History of the World. Wiesner-Hanks also contributed to the textbook A History of Western Society with John P. McKay,[6] which has been published in several editions and is often used in Advanced Placement European History classes.[7]