History professors earn high honors from the Ohio Academy of History

Kira Thurman assistant professor of history, is the 2015 recipient of the Ohio Academy of History’s Junior Faculty Research Grant. The OAH awards this grant competitively every year to support outstanding research by untenured college and university faculty in Ohio. Winners use the money to defray the costs of domestic or international travel necessary to conduct research on a significant scholarly project. Thurman’s award-winning project is “Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.”

Additionally, Kevin Kern, associate professor of history, has received the academy’s 2015 Distinguished Service Award. The OAH has presented this award since 1971 “in recognition of outstanding service to the historical profession and to the Ohio Academy of History.” Kern has been a member of the OAH Executive Council since 2006, and has served as the organization’s secretary-treasurer since 2008.

Kern joins emeritus professors George Knepper (1988) and Shelley Baranowski (2008) as recipients of this award.