Edward M Penson Faculty Awards

Kimberly Rivers

Kimberly Rivers is history professor and interim director of the University Studies Program. She served as interim dean of the College of Letters and Science from August 2020 through January 2022. She previously was an associate dean in the College of Letters and Science, history department chair and has served on numerous committees at the college and university level. As an instructor of courses in ancient and medieval history, she strives to show students how previous societies handled some of the same issues we struggle with today and to help students understand how history is created by historians and in popular memory.

Her research interests include late-medieval intellectual history, memory and mnemonics in late-medieval preaching, and religious devotion. She is the author of several essays and articles on those topics, as well as a monograph and a co-edited volume of essays.