Kira Thurman is Assistant Professor of History and Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. A classically trained pianist who grew up in Vienna, she earned her PhD in history from the University of Rochester, with a minor in musicology through the Eastman School of Music. At the Academy, Thurman will work on her first book project, “Singing like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.” Based on archival research in Germany, Austria, and the United States, she traces the history of black classical musicians in Central Europe from the 1870s to the 1960s.