Dr. Carla L. Klausner earned her doctorate from Harvard University in History and Middle Eastern studies in 1963, the first year that Harvard granted the doctorate to women. She began her teaching career at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a part-time appointment in 1964 and received a tenure track position in 1966. For the first few decades, she was the only full-time female faculty member of the Department of History and one of a handful of female faculty members within the college.
During her tenure, Klausner taught a variety of courses in Medieval European, Islamic, Ottoman, Modern Middle East, Jewish, and Holocaust history. She was instrumental in establishing the Cluster Course program funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was also a faculty member of the Judaic Studies program and the Religious Studies discipline of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. She served in several positions within the Department of History, including as the Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees advisor and the Interdisciplinary Doctorate of Philosophy degree coordinator
Klausner received several teaching awards: the Shelby Storck Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Interfraternity Council Good Teaching Award, the UMKC Interdisciplinary Doctorate of Philosophy Faculty Award from the Doctoral Student Association, was a Mortarboard Honoree, the President of the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi, and in 2004, was named Curators Distinguished Teaching Professor. Her expertise on the Middle East led to countless lectures and speaking engagements throughout the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area and elsewhere.
Klausner wrote The Seljuk Vezirate (1973) and co-wrote From Destruction to Rebirth: The Holocaust and the State of Israel (1978) with Joseph P. Schultz, and A History of the Arab-Israel Conflict (9th edition, 2023) with Ian J. Bickerton. She is the author of many articles and book reviews on subjects of her expertise.
Klausner has taught eleven different courses (both undergraduate and graduate) throughout her tenure at UMKC. Content area of these courses include: Medieval European; Medieval Jewish; Islamic; Ottoman and Modern Middle East histories. Klausner also participated in the "Cluster Courses" (interdisciplinary courses co-taught with other UMKC faculty), the Judaic Studies program, and the History and Religious Studies disciplines of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.
B.A. History, Barnard College, 1958
M.A. Middle East Studies, Radcliffe College, 1960
Ph.D. History and Middle East Studies, Harvard University, 1963
Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Alpha Theta (national history honorary)
Phi Kappa Phi (UMKC vice-president, 1975-78; UMKC president, 1978-1981)
UMKC Interfraternity Council Good Teaching Award, 1966-1967
UMKC Mortarboard Honoree, 1977
UMKC Shelby Storck Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 1976-77
First UMKC Doctoral Student Association Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Faculty Award, 1995
UM Board of Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor Award, 2004