History Professor to Deliver UA’s ‘Last Lecture’

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Lawrence F. Kohl, associate professor of history and Blount Senior Fellow at The University of Alabama, has won the 2010 Last Lecture award from the UA Graduate School.

Kohl will give the lecture, titled “Education in the Age of Science: A Critique,” at 6 p.m. Monday, April 26, in 30 Alston Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception in Kohl’s honor will follow the lecture.

Students nominate and select the Last Lecture recipient. More than 100 students nominated a professor whom they most would like to hear lecture on the topic, “If this were your last time to address a group of students, what would you say?”

A student selection committee, comprised of graduate and undergraduate student representatives, chose five finalists based on nomination letters and the potential appeal to a diverse audience.

The committee gathered additional information on each of the finalists. Information included finalist interviews, classroom observations and examination of vitas, home pages and publications.

Born and raised in the Middle West, Kohl was a National Merit Scholar at Harvard, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in history with high honors. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he received his Master of Arts and his doctorate in history.

He has taught at UA since 1987, offering courses on American and Irish history.

Previously, Kohl was named a Lilly Teaching Scholar; he also was named a Distinguished Teaching Fellow by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences.

He is the author of many publications relating to antebellum politics, the Civil War and Lincoln. His best known work is “The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era,” published by Oxford University Press.

The history department is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Teams.