Appointments

Robin D.G. Kelley was named professor of history at the University of Southern California. He will also teach in the university’s program in American studies and ethnicity. Kelley, who is working on a biography of Thelonius Monk, was a professor of anthropology at Columbia University.

Kelley is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach. He holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from UCLA. Before coming to Columbia in 2003, he was chair of the history department at New York University.

George French Jr., who has been serving as acting president and interim president since the death of Albert Sloan this past November, was named the thirteenth president of Miles College, the historically black liberal arts institution in Fairfield, Alabama. Before taking over the duties of the president’s office, French was the director of institutional planning and development. The college enrolls about 1,700 students, more than 97 percent of whom are black.