Kenneth Cmiel

Kenneth Cmiel was a professor in the departments of  History and American Studies of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He was also the director of the UI Center for Human Rights. An influential and energetic scholar, Ken was in the process of writing and publishing groundbreaking research on the history of human rights when he died in 2006.  

Ken’s approach to research on topics that ranged from popular music to social welfare reform to human rights was uniquely collaborative and interdisciplinary. His projects often brought him to the Obermann Center. In 2005, he and law professor Mark Sidel received an Interdisciplinary Research Grant to collaborate on a study of human trafficking. He also participated in the Summer 2000 Research Seminar, “The Usable Past: Historical Perspectives on Digital Culture.”  

Ken epitomized the spirit of curiosity, intellectual generosity, and collegiality to which the Cmiel seminars aspire. As the History Department’s memorial to Ken said, he “was, without pretence, and in the fullest sense of each word, a scholar and a citizen. His leadership of the UI Center for Human Rights underscored his determination to understand the world around him, and to change it for better.”  Ken’s life and work remind us that working together, scholars and researchers have the potential not only to change minds but to change the world.