Kevin K. Gaines has been named the inaugural Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice at the University of Virginia. His position comes with a joint appointment in the Corcoran Department of History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and Africana Studies. The new professorship was established to honor the legacy of Julian Bond, a longtime social justice activist and professor at the university. Professor Bond died in 2015. (See JBHE post.)
Dr. Gaines comes to the University of Virginia from Cornell University where he was the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Africana Studies and History. Previously he has taught at Princeton University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Michigan. He was the president of the American Studies Association during the 2009-2010 academic year.
Currently, Dr. Gaines is taking a semester off to finish his next book, which covers a global history of African Americans. He is the author of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 1996) and American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2006).
“It’s a great honor to be the inaugural holder of the Julian Bond Professorship. It’s a really exciting time to be at UVA, when the institution is redoubling efforts to strengthen Africana studies,” said Dr. Gaines. “I look forward to working with the many outstanding colleagues in history and at the Woodson Institute.”
Dr. Gaines holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in American studies from Brown University.
As a two-time alumnus of The University, I extend sincere congratulations and best wishes to you, Dr. Gaines.