Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle visiting Illinois College as part of Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program
Illinois College will welcome Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle for a public lecture on April 7, 2025. The event, titled “Who Runs the World?: Popular Music, the Mythology of the Girl, and the Making of Girl Power,” is free to attend in Kirby Learning Center, Room 6 at 7 p.m.
Kernodle is a University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. An internationally recognized musician and scholar, her research focuses on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. She is the author of Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, a biography chronicling the six-decade career of jazz pianist, arranger, and educator Mary Lou Williams.
Kernodle’s scholarship has been featured in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has contributed to award-winning documentaries such as Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, Girls in the Band, and Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool. Kernodle has also collaborated with organizations such as The American Jazz Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, NPR, and the BBC.
"Dr. Kernodle's research into American music history is fascinating,” says Beth Widmaier Capo, secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, “I'm looking forward to her analysis of girl power and contemporary popular music."
The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program brings distinguished scholars to colleges and universities across the country, providing students and faculty with opportunities to engage with experts from a variety of academic fields.
Illinois College is one of only 293 select campuses in the country — just 10% of institutions — and one of only 11 in Illinois to have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.