Professor Kevin Ostoyich Recognized for Scholarship & Teaching Excellence

Professor Kevin Ostoyich has been honored recently for his work on Shanghai Jewish refugees. The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University named Prof. Ostoyich a visiting fellow for summer 2017, and the Sino-Judaic Institute has awarded him a grant to support research at the National Archives on newly released visa application materials from Shanghai Jews. Dr. Ostoyich will also use the grant to conduct interviews with former Shanghai Jewish refugees and to continue examining files pertaining to retribution payments to Shanghai Jewish refugees in the Bremen State Archives (Germany). Prof. Ostoyich’s research over the summer is further supported by a Kretzmann Grant through Valparaiso University.

Prof. Ostoyich’s deep engagement with significant primary sources does not end with his scholarship.  This commitment thoroughly infuses his classroom—whether students are analyzing the diary of a German woman growing up under the Nazi regime (“Hitler and the Third Reich”) or plumbing troves of firsthand accounts to construct and perform an original dramatic production for the Valpo community about the plight of Shanghai Jewish refugees (“Historical Theatre: The Shanghai Jews”).  Prof. Ostoyich’s innovative pedagogy asks students to engage sources and texts in fresh and compelling ways, and this spring he was honored with the university’s Excellence in Teaching Award for his curriculum and course development. At the award ceremony, Prof. Ostoyich beseeched audience members (including several of his students seated in the room) to remember that “primary sources are sweeter than candy and better than chocolate!”  It’s a phrase his current and former students appeared to know well.

As community productions of “Knocking on the Doors of History: The Shanghai Jews” have made abundantly clear, Prof. Ostoyich’s teaching extends beyond the classroom and his university students.  Indeed, he was recently interviewed for the new PBS documentary series “We’ll Meet Again,” which chronicles the reunions of individuals affected by major events in twentieth-century American history. One episode details the story of a Shanghai Jewish refugee, and producers consulted Dr. Ostoyich to better understand the rich historical context around their subject’s story.  The episode will air later this year and provide yet another example of the way Prof. Ostoyich’s teaching and research enliven not only his own classroom, but wider communities as well.

Read additional information:

“From Kristallnacht and Back: Searching for Meaning in the History of the Shanghai Jews” – by Prof. Ostoyich

“Shanghai Stories” – Valpo prof’s research about Jews who fled WWII takes him to Moreland Hills