Dr. Carlos Eire

Biography

Carlos Eire, awarded the 2024 Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize at Yale College, received his PhD from Yale in 1979. He specializes in social, intellectual, religious, and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe, with a focus on the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the history of popular piety; history of the supernatural; and the history of death. Eire joined the Yale faculty in 1996 and has previously taught at St. John’s University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and has authored several notable works including 'War Idols' (1986), 'Madrid Purgatory' (1995), 'A Brief History of Eternity' (2010), and 'Reformations: The Early Modern World' (2016). His biography of Saint Teresa of Avila was published in 2019, and he recently released 'Flew: The History of the Impossible' (2023). He co-authored 'Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions' (1997) and penned a memoir, 'Waiting for Snow in Havana' (2003), which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in the United States and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His memoir 'Learning to Die in Miami' (2010) explores the experience of exile. Eire has served as president of the Society for Reformation Research and is currently researching topics related to the history of the supernatural. His book on the Reformations received the R.R. Hawkins Prize for Book of the Year from the American Publishers Association and the Book Award in Humanities in 2017, as well as the Jaroslav Pelikan Prize from Yale University Press. His books have been banned in Cuba, where he was proclaimed an enemy of the state, marking a significant distinction among his highest honors.

Research Interests