Two Major Black Scholars Leave Penn
The nation’s leading colleges and universities compete fiercely for the nation’s most noted black scholars. In this ongoing competition, Penn has suffered two major losses and Yale University and Georgetown University have each landed “a big fish.”
Elijah Anderson, a sociologist and one of the nation’s leading authorities on issues of urban inequality, was named William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale University. Dr. Anderson was the Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been a faculty member since 1975.
Professor Anderson is a graduate of Indiana University. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Anderson is the author of the award-winning books A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men and Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City.
Michael Eric Dyson, who was Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Penn, is now a University Professor at Georgetown University. Holding high rank as a University Professor, Dr. Dyson is not tied to any one department and will teach courses in English, theology, and African-American studies.
Professor Dyson is a prolific writer and is popular on the college lecture circuit. His latest book, Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip-Hop, has just been released by Basic/Civitas.
An ordained Baptist minister, Professor Dyson is a graduate of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He holds a master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.