Kentucky Association of Teachers of History

News about Dr. Jim Klotter, featured speaker at our upcoming annual meeting, from a press release by Mack McCormick, University Press of Kentucky:

On Tuesday, May 10, James C. Klotter was recognized as the 2016 recipient of the University of Kentucky Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement at the UK Libraries Spring Gala. The Lexington native, UK alumnus, and Georgetown College scholar is the state historian of Kentucky. The UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement is one of UK’s most prestigious awards. It was created in 1990 to recognize high intellectual achievement by a Kentuckian who has made a contribution of lasting value to the Commonwealth. The recipient is determined by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board after receiving nominations from the public. Past recipients include: Wendell Berry, James Still, Bobbie Ann Mason, Thomas D. Clark, Laman A. Gray Jr., Guy Davenport, George C. Herring, John Egerton, Karl Raitz, and George C. Wright.

“Through his writing, his teaching, and hundreds of talks on Kentucky history across the Commonwealth over the past four decades, Dr. James C. Klotter epitomizes what the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement honors: high intellectual achievement by a Kentuckian who has made a contribution of lasting value,” UK Libraries Dean Terry Birdwhistell said.

James C. Klotter received his doctoral degree in history from UK in 1975. He is author, co-author, or editor of almost 20 books including The Breckinridges of Kentucky, William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath, Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792-1852, and Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950. He is also the author of the Kentucky history textbooks used at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels statewide. Klotter is general editor, along with UK Libraries Dean Terry Birdwhistell and Douglas Boyd of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, of the book series Kentucky Remembered: An Oral History Series. He also serves as the general editor of the Topics in Kentucky History series.

The state historian of Kentucky since 1980, Klotter worked at the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) from 1973 to 1998, with his tenure culminating in eight years of service as the KHS executive director. Since 1998, he has been a professor of history at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. He has also been chair or president of the Kentucky Association of Teachers of History, the Kentucky Council on Archives, the UK Library Associates, the Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, and the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. The recipient of several other local, regional, and national honors, Klotter has previously received the Governor’s Outstanding Kentuckian Award and the Clark Award for Literary Excellence. He also has delivered the McCandless Lecture at Oxford University.

For more information, contact: Mack McCormick, Publicity Manager for the University Press of Kentucky, 859/257-5200, permissions@uky.edu.