The University announced on Wednesday that two professors from the History department have been appointed to endowed chairs. On Nov. 26, Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren named Prof. Michael Willrich (HIST) the Leff Families Professor of History and Prof. David Engerman (HIST) the Ottilie Springer Professor of History.

"I was utterly surprised and delighted by the news," Willrich wrote in an email to the Justice. "An endowed chair is a special honor for a professor, and I'm particularly honored to be taking on the chair previously occupied by my much-missed colleague Rudy Binion, a brilliant historian who died in 2011."

Engerman had a similar reaction. "I was very excited and proud. Academia is a funny world in which one doesn't get many promotions ... so to find out about the University bestowing an honor like that was great," he said in an interview with the Justice.

Carl and Phillip Leff established the Leff Chair in 1965 with their wives, all of whom contributed financially to Brandeis' early years. "The chair is an honor, with no particular strings attached, other than continuing to strive to meet Brandeis' high standards for research, teaching and service," Willrich said.

Axel Springer, German journalist and media mogul, named the Ottilie Springer Chair after his mother in 1968. "There's a story about the chair in the memoir called A Host at Last by the president [of Brandeis] under whose auspices it was created, Abram Sachar," Engerman explained. "Axel Springer had given a lot of money to Israel and various Jewish causes, and Abram Sachar solicited a gift on behalf of American Jews."

Engerman is currently working on a book entitled Planning for Prosperity: The Economic Cold War in India.

"It's about American and Soviet competition ... to provide development aid to India," Engerman said. "It's an unusual facet of the Cold War, since we usually think about the Cold War as military competition and this is about economics."

Willrich's most recent book is Pox: An American History, about the smallpox epidemic in 20th Century United States.

He is "at the early stages of two separate projects, a political history of sports in the United States, and a post-frontier history of Americans who have chosen-and often have struggled-to live 'off the grid,'" Willrich wrote. Willrich, who began his career as a journalist, said that he likes teaching history because "history offers important insights into our contemporary challenges, and I am particularly drawn to the historian's craft of making meaningful arguments through narrative."

Engerman is also enthusiastic about his job. "I like teaching because every time I do it I look at the material differently. Even pieces I've taught on and off since I was in graduate school sound different now. Communism sounds more remote to current students than when I was a student or even students in the 1990s," Engerman said.

Both professors say they learn a lot from their students. "We're pretty spoiled at Brandeis, because the students here are very smart and engaged-always ready for a good debate," Willrich wrote. "My legal history class this fall is a case in point. Today the students launched into a nuanced debate about President [Abraham] Lincoln's purposes in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation."

"Brandeis students in particular are good teachers," Engerman added. "Trying to see it through their eyes gives me new ways to think about things that I thought I knew something about."

Engerman and Willrich both started their Brandeis careers in 1999, and their "careers have evolved together as colleagues and beyond," Engerman said.