History professor receives NWC award for excellence in faith and learning

Dr. Michael Kugler, professor of history at Northwestern College, has been named the 2025 recipient of the college’s Faculty Excellence in Faith and Learning Award. He was recognized during commencement exercises on May 10.

The award honors and encourages the calling and responsibility of Christian faculty to devote time and energy to scholarship and creative expression in ways that faithfully convey the wonder, truth and beauty of God’s revelation in Scripture and creation.

A member of Northwestern’s faculty since 1994, Kugler received the Northwestern Teaching Excellence Award in 2006. He has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed faith-and-learning-oriented venues, such as Christian Scholar’s Review, Fides et Historia, and the edited volume Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation. His work spans diverse subjects, from traditional historical sources to popular media analysis.

Kugler was a Fellow of the Holocaust Educational Foundation last year. In 2019, he was one of 25 scholars selected to participate in the Science and Christianity in Oxford summer seminar.

In 2023, University Press of Mississippi published his book, "Into the Jungle! A Boy’s Comic Strip History of World War II.” The book explores the historical context of comic strips his father drew in the 1940s.

“Mike is an active and productive scholar,” wrote a professor who nominated him for the award. “He integrates his deep faith into all he does, from his teaching and scholarship to his work as a priest at Church of the Savior. He regularly leads faculty reading groups where discussions dive deep into faith, history, philosophy and more. And Mike lives out his faith in action, helping people in need behind the scenes and truly caring for his neighbors.”

Kugler primarily teaches European history from the Reformation through the modern era. He came to Northwestern after earning a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree in history from Western Washington University, and a bachelor’s from Judson Baptist College.