Posted on September 19, 2005 at 8:54 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) professors William C. Cockerham, Ph.D., and Raymond A. Mohl, Ph.D., each received the designation of Distinguished Professor by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees during its September 15 meeting.

The board recognized Professor Cockerham for his service to UAB as a sociology researcher. He joined the UAB Department of Sociology in 1991 with secondary appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health. He was department chairman from 1994 to 2000.

Cockerham is former director of the UAB Center for Health Promotion’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Unit. He co-directs the UAB Center for Social Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

He has published 13 books on health, medical sociology and aging. His book Medical Sociology, which has been published in five languages, received a placement on the International Sociological Association’s list of “Books of the 20th Century.”

Professor Mohl also was honored for his research and scholarship. He has written and edited more than a dozen books, including his most recent work, South of the South: Jewish Activists and the Civil Rights Movement in Miami, 1945-1960 in 2004. He also has published more than 100 scholarly papers and presented more than 100 lectures at professional meetings both nationally and internationally.

Mohl is the founding editor of the Journal of Urban History. He is a member of the journal’s editorial board.

Mohl has held Fulbright professorships at the University of Western Australia, Tel Aviv University and Göttingen University. He joined the UAB Department of History in 1996 and was chairman from 1996 to 2002.