Thomas J. Kernan, Associate Professor of Music History and Honors Bachelor of Musical Arts Program Head, has served on the CCPA faculty since Fall 2014. Prof. Kernan is a scholar of American music. In recent projects his research has addressed the musical memorialization of Abraham Lincoln, from his death in 1865 to the present, as well as the history of concert audiences’ musical and extra-musical experiences.
Prof. Kernan’s Lincoln research earned the 2016 Hay-Nicolay Prize from the Abraham Lincoln Association and Abraham Lincoln Institute. His work on the American concert hall experience earned the 2019–2020 Newberry Library Rudolph Ganz Long-term Fellowship in American Music. His award-winning teaching has been recognized by the University of Cincinnati (CCM), where he completed his MM and PhD, and by Roosevelt University, where he earned the Provost’s 2019 Award for Innovative Curricular Design.
From Fall 2020 to Fall 2022, Prof. Kernan is serving as Chair of the Roosevelt University Senate and holds a range of committee and council appointments related to this position.
Prof. Kernan is married to culinary historian Sarah Peters Kernan with whom he has two active sons. Outside of academic life, he enjoys reading widely, traveling, and eating and drinking tasty foodstuffs and libations.