Kira Thurman

BIAAS granted $5,303.50 to Kira Thurman to travel to Austria to research Austrian and German responses to African-American classical musicians who performed in those countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The funds of the grant covered transportation and living expenses in Vienna for five weeks, in which Thurman visited four archives in the city, such as the Vienna Staatsoper and the Wienbinliothek im Rathaus. The research contributed to her dissertation, A History of Black Musicians in Germany, 1870-1961: Race, Performance, and Reception, which was completed in 2013.

Kira Thurman earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Rochester in 2013and now works as an assistant professor of German and history at the University of Michigan.