Ngugi wa Thiong’o has been selected to receive the University of California Irvine Medal. A native of Kenya and an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and journalist, he serves as a Distinguished Professor of comparative literature at the university. The award, honoring exceptional service to the university, will be presented at a ceremony in October.
Thiong’o joined the faculty at the University of California at Irvine in 2002. He previously taught at Yale University and New York University. He is the author several books including Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (Pantheon, 2010) and In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir (Pantheon, 2012).
Velma McBride Murry received the 2013 Distinguished Contributions to Cultural and Contextual Factors in Child Development Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. Dr. Murry holds the Betts Chair in the department of human and organizational development at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Professor Murry is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at Columbia.
