Very Few Black Economists Teaching at the Nation’s Largest Universities

Over the past 15 years JBHE research has shown that there are few black scholars teaching economics at the nation’s highest-ranking universities. The small presence of black faculty in economics is confirmed by new research by Donna Nelson, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma.

Professor Nelson’s research finds 42 blacks teaching at the 97 universities with the nation’s largest research budgets in economics. All told there are 2,360 economics faculty at these 97 universities. Therefore, blacks make up 1.8 percent of all economics faculty at these institutions.

There are three black economists at Georgia Tech. There are two black economists at New York University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and Tufts University.

Of the 42 black faculty members teaching economics at these 97 universities, 19 hold the rank of full professor.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.