Renowned social historian and Pulitzer-Prize winner Laurel Thatcher Ulrich this week accepted a joint appointment from the women's studies committee and the history department. She will begin teaching at Harvard in the fall of 1995.

Ulrich is the first woman ever to receive tenure in the American history division of Harvard's history department. She specializes in American social history before 1820 and currently teaches at the University of New Hampshire (UNH).

Juliet Schor, head tutor of the women's studies committee, said she is "thrilled" that Ulrich is coming to Harvard.

"She's a breathtaking scholar," Schor said yesterday. "One of the things I personally like is that she's looking at the history of everyday life from the point of view of a household, which is very refreshing and interesting.... It also seems quite clear to me she's a fabulous teacher. That's very important to us."

Ulrich will teach Women's Studies 10a, "Roots of Feminism," next fall and will continue teaching the course "for a while," Schor said. She will also likely teach an upper-level seminar on women and health, Schor said. Ulrich could "presumably serve as chair [of the committee on women's studies] before too long," Schor added. Department chairs rotate every few years.

Susan R. Suleiman, the current chair of the committee on women's studies, said she is delighted that Ulrich is coming and noted that Ulrich's knowledge is broad-ranging.

"She has very wide interests in areas aside from her specialization," Suleiman said.

Thomas N. Bisson, chair of the history department, said yesterday he is elated that Ulrich is coming to Harvard.

"She is a first-class historian, a wonderful writer of history," Bisson said. "She'll do good things for women's studies and history."

Bisson said that he cannot say what courses Ulrich will be teaching in his department, but that "undoubtedly it will be something in colonial American history."

Ulrich said earlier this week that she is delighted to be coming to Harvard.

"I'm very enthusiastic about the opportunity to be in both the history department and to be part of the committee on women's studies," Ulrich said. "I think the interdisciplinary aspect of the appointment is really exciting, and there are wonderful faculty at Harvard in both of those areas."

A faculty position in women's studies has been open for more than a year since former committee chair Olwen Hufton resigned in 1993.

Because Ulrich will split her time with the history department, she will only fill half of Hufton's position. The women's studies committee is conducting a joint search with the sociology department to fill the other half and will soon meet to decide on a short list of candidates, Schor said.

Ulrich was a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, received her Ph.D. from there and has been on its faculty since 1980. It will be bittersweet, she said, to depart from a place she has known so long and so well.

But Ulrich said she told her department with a smile, "You can think of it as losing a colleague, but you can also think of it as one of your aging colleagues got up and got moving."

She said she is looking forward to the newness of her Harvard post.

"It's just a new opportunity, a different kind of experience," Ulrich said. "I think it's good sometimes when you're middle-aged to try something new."

"I understand that the students [at Harvard] are really wonderful and a delight to teach," Ulrich added.

She will keep her residence in New Hampshire and will probably have an apartment in Cambridge, she said