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CWRU's graduate program in sociology is quite different today
from the one Eva Kahana, the Pierce T. and Elizabeth D. Robson
Professor of Humanities and chair of the sociology department,
found when she arrived on campus in 1984.
At that time, she faced the daunting task of keeping alive a
graduate program with only one student, threats about disbanding
the program and no research funds to support graduate students.
 In
recognition of her contributions to graduate education at CWRU,
the Graduate Student Senate awarded Kahana the John S. Diekhoff
Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award at the graduate studies
diploma ceremony.
The Diekhoff Award is the first teaching honor from the University
that Kahana has received and joins a list of more than 20 national
honors for her work in the field of aging.
Under Kahana's leadership, the sociology program has grown. Currently
28 students are working towards doctorate degrees in sociology
and are involved with four department researchers, who collectively
have more than $4 million in research projects focusing on medical
sociology or aging-two of the department's strengths.
Since her arrival at CWRU, Kahana and graduate students have
co-authored 45 journal articles. Kahana admits that she hesitated
about taking the chairmanship in those early days.
"I could not conceive of being in a program without graduate
students," Kahana said.
She brought three National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral
fellows from Wayne State University where she headed up the Elderly
Care Research Center. The center is now located at CWRU.
Working with faculty from nursing, psychology and medicine, she
sought funding for an interdisciplinary approach to gerontology
that kept the program alive in her first five years on campus.
By the fifth year, the NIMH told her that sociology was strong
enough to go after its own funding.
"I have always felt that learning is also about caring," said
Kahana, who sees her graduate students as fellow learners in the
"seamless whole of life where everything is interconnected."
"I am unabashed about feeling that it is important to aim one's
endeavors towards doing good," she said, noting that is a philosophy
instilled by her mother.
Her mother, husband, teachers and academic colleagues have been
mentors in her life. In 1956 at the age of 15, Kahana came to
the United States from Budapest, Hungary. She had survived the
Holocaust by hiding with her mother in a church and World War
II.
She spoke very little English, but her high school principal
at Boston's Maimonides High School advanced her two years ahead
and helped her by filling out college application forms and paying
for the application fees so that she could attend college.
She graduated from Stern College for Women and majored in history.
While at Stern, she met her husband Boaz (now a psychology professor
at Cleveland State University) who encouraged her to pursue the
social sciences. She went on for her master's degree in clinical
psychology at the City College of New York City and her doctorate
in human development from the University of Chicago.
"People often describe me as a workaholic," Kahana said, "but
my work and pleasure are tied together in my passion for my research."
She readily admits spending Saturdays reading journal articles
and enthusiastically sharing the information with others. Her
curriculum vitae lists more than 29 pages of published articles.
She does not see research separate from teaching.
"For me they are intertwined," she said. One of the joys of teaching
for Kahana is seeing her graduate students reach their goals of
becoming full-time faculty members, researchers, writers or directors
of nursing homes and finding their own pathways in life. "This
is how I measure success as a teacher and mentor," she said.
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