After demonstrating outstanding contributions in service to Ohio State, Mitch Lerner received the 2021 Ohio State Newark Faculty Service Award in the tenured category.
In addition to Lerner’s position as the director of the East Asian Studies Center and professor of history, he holds a 50% appointment at Ohio State’s Newark campus and boasts an extensive list of service work for both Newark and Columbus campuses.
“It was an honor to be the recipient of this award, which reflects the high value that Ohio State puts on the work we do at the Office of International Affairs,” Lerner said. “This isn’t just recognition of my efforts; it is recognition of the great work done by everyone at the East Asian Studies Center and OIA, whose efforts make all of our programs possible.”
His nominators, tenured and non-tenured faculty and administration, noted that Lerner’s service in the past three years includes coordinator for the history department, member of the Academic Affairs Committee, member or chair of two search committees and as the chair for a fourth-year review committee.
His nominators also said he served as the director of the LeFevre Fellows program, in which he taught a year-long seminar and participated in community service with students in Newark. He has also served as director of the Institute for Korean Studies and currently serves as a faculty fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security at Ohio State.
As part of his duties with the East Asian Studies Center, Lerner directs a lecture series, serves on multiple subcommittees, engages in fundraising opportunities, and serves as the Ohio State representative to the Big Ten Academic Alliance Korean E-school courseshare program.
Finally, Lerner serves as the associate editor of the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, and he has been interviewed over 50 times in the past three years for media outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Times, C-Span and the Columbus Dispatch.