Stateside honour for Northumbria academic

A Northumbria University academic has been named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organisation of American Historians (OAH).

The honour given to Randall Stephens, a Reader in American Studies and History, means that Northumbria, along with Oxford University, are the only two institutions outside the US to boast OAH Distinguished Lecturers.

Randall joins 43 other US historians who were selected this year to give lectures across North America and is the only scholar in this newly chosen cohort based in the UK. He joins Brian Ward, Professor in American Studies at Northumbria, who has been an OAH Distinguished Lecturer since 2003.

Established in 1981, the OAH Distinguished Lectureship Programme sends historians around the US to speak to students and teachers at colleges, universities and public schools and to address audiences at museums and libraries. There are around 400 Distinguished Lecturers who are selected because of their impact in their chosen areas of study. Randall’s specialisms are religion and popular music in the US.

Randall, who is Programme Leader in American Studies, has written essays for The Chronicle of Higher Education,The New York Times and the Atlantic blog.

Northumbria is a leading centre for the study of American culture, history and literature and boasts one of the largest concentrations of American historians in the UK.

Northumbria’s new American Studies BA launches this September, giving students interested in the US the opportunity to study its history, literature, politics and popular culture. For more information, visit here