Robert J. Kerner

Robert Joseph Kerner (August 26, 1887 – November 29, 1956) was an American academic of eastern European history. Educated at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, Kerner was a professor at the University of Missouri from 1914 to 1926, serving as the dean of its graduate school before departing to lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a professor of history from 1928 until his death in 1956.

Biography Kerner was born on August 26, 1887, in Chicago to Joseph A. Kerner, a founder of the Czech-language Denni Hlasatel newspaper, and Rose Kerner . He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1908 and 1909, respectively; he served as an assistant instructor at the University of Illinois during his time studying there. Kerner began his doctoral studies at Harvard University in 1910, serving during his first two years as an assistant of history at Harvard and Radcliffe College.

Kerner began his academic career as an instructor at the University of Missouri in 1914;

Between June 1925 and September 1926, Kerner served as acting dean of the University of Missouri's graduate school. During his tenure, the graduate school adopted a standardized policy that all students were to follow, which led to a "well-organized Graduate School" being included among the university's divisions for the first time. He departed from the University of Missouri in 1926, and in 1928 he accepted a professorship in modern European history at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as the editor of the Journal of Modern History between 1929 and 1931. In February 1931, he formed the Northeastern Asia Seminar, a five-year colloquium intended to study the factors behind the relations between China, Russia, and Japan.

In 1941, Kerner was appointed Sather Professor of History; that same year, he was awarded the Czechoslovak state prize for literature. He was made a faculty research lecturer in 1943; in 1948, he organized and served as director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Kerner was awarded the Order of the White Lion, III class; a medal of the Order of Leopold II; and the Order of the Star of Romania, officer class. He died on November 29, 1956, at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.