Tag: Harvard University

Black Film Project and Film Studies Fellowships Established at Harvard University

Henry Louis Gates Jr., professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, will direct the newly established Black Film Project, an initiative aiming to support independent films focusing on Black history and culture.

University of Notre Dame Honors Maurice Cox With Henry Hope Reed Award

Maurice Cox has been named the 2024 laureate of the Henry Hope Reed Award at the University of Notre Dame for his dedication to education and public service.

Claudine Gay Resigns as President of Harvard University

Dr. Gay had served as president of Harvard University for only six months. She was the first African American and the second woman to lead Harvard in its nearly 400-year history.

Roger Fairfax Will Be the Next Dean of the Howard University School of Law

Fairfax currently serves as dean of the American University Washington College of Law. Earlier he was senior associate dean for academic affairs, Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, and founding director of the Criminal Law & Policy Initiative at George Washington University Law School.

In Memoriam: Willard R. Johnson, 1935-2023

Dr. Johnson joined the political science faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964 as an assistant professor. He was the first Black faculty member at MIT to rise through the ranks and achieve tenure from within.

Harvard Announces a Grant Program to Address Systemic Inequities for Descendants of Slavery

The Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative will offer annual funding up to $350,000 for long-term projects and $25,000 for smaller projects that address systemic inequities for descendants of slavery.

Harvard University Establishes the Black Teacher Archive

The archive consists of journals and newsletters created by members of Colored Teachers Associations that captured the political and social efforts of Black educators’ activism from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights Movement. The old journals and bulletins chronicle the acts of resistance in places where Black educators fought against injustice in education under Jim Crow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Honored by the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

The James Dent Walker Award is the highest national award that can be bestowed by the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society upon a person who has exhibited distinguished accomplishments through a significant and measurable contribution to the research, documentation, and/or preservation of African American history.

Kerry James Marshall’s Portrait of Henry Louis Gate Jr. Donated to Cambridge University

Kerry James Marshall has donated his portrait of Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Jr. to the University of Cambridge. Professor Gates holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English language and literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge. The work is Marshall's first portrait of a living person.

Melissa Gilliam Will Be the First African American President of Boston University

Dr. Gilliam has been provost at Ohio State University since July 2021. Earlier, she was vice provost, the Ellen H. Block Distinguished Service Professor of Health Justice, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. She will become president of Boston University on July 1, 2024.

Five Black Faculty Members Named MacArthur Fellows

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recently announced the 20 latest recipients in its fellowship program, commonly referred to as “genius grants.” Of this year's 20 winners, five are Black scholars with current ties to the academic world.

Six Black Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties in Higher Education

Taking on new roles are Imani Perry at Harvard University, Tyrone McKinley Freeman at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Alisha Butler at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Gordon Ibeanu at North Carolina Central University, Linda Lausell Bryant in the Silver School of Social Work at New York University, and Andrea Dawn Frazier at Columbus State University in Georgia

Marla Frederick Will Be the Next Dean of Harvard Divinity School

Dr. Frederick is currently the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Prior to her appointment at Emory, she served on the Harvard faculty from 2003 to 2019

Harry Elam to Step Down as Occidental College President at the End of the Academic Year

Harry J. Elam Jr. became the sixteenth president of Occidental College in Los Angeles on July 1, 2020. Dr. Elam recently announced in a message to new students that he would be stepping down from his post at the end of the academic year due to a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

The First Black Dean of the Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia

Said Ibrahim has been serving as senior vice president of the medicine service line at Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider. He also serves as chair of the department of medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, and the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University. He will become dean on December 1.

A Quartet of Black Scholars in New Faculty Positions

Taking on new duties are Ruth L. Okediji at Harvard University, Milton S.F. Curry at Cornell University, Felicia McGhee at Florida A&M University, and Summer Perry at Columbus State University in Georgia.

The Next Leader of the School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago

Nadya Mason has been serving as the Rosalyn S. Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has also served as the director of the University of Illinois' Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. 

In Memoriam: Charles J. Ogletree Jr. 1952-2023

Charles Ogletree was the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and the founding executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School. He taught at the law school for 36 years.

Study Finds Huge Racial Disparity in Killings by Off-Duty Police Officers

A new study led by Emmanuella Ngozi Asabor, an MD/Ph.D. candidate at Yale University found that Black men are the most common victims of killings committed by off-duty police officers in the U.S. Researchers found that many incidences occurred while off-duty officers were performing side jobs as security officers, and that these officers often obscured information about their involvement in situations that turned deadly.

Kimberly Rogers Appointed the Fifteenth President of Contra Costa College in California

Before being named acting president of the college in 2022, Dr. Rogers was vice president for instruction. Earlier in her career, she held academic appointments at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Université de Haute-Alsace in France.

Eric Turner Will Be the First Black President of Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts

Turner was named Lasell’s provost in June 2020 after serving as the institution’s vice president of graduate and professional studies. Earlier in his career, he was a senior vice president at State Street Corporation, a financial services firm based in Boston.

Highly Selective Colleges Become Even More Selective

In an era when college enrollments are generally down, a large number of selective educational institutions recorded a record number of applications, and therefore a record low admissions rate. But very few of them revealed data on the percentage of Blacks in their admitted classes.

In Memoriam: Randall Robinson, 1941-2023

Randall Robinson was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and educator. He was one of America's leading voices in opposition to South African apartheid. He taught at Pennsylvania State University from 2008 to 2016.

Four African American Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to New Faculty Positions

Taking on new roles are LaQuandra S. Nesbitt at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jarvis Givens at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Nicole B. Burwell at North Carolina A&T State University, and Anthony Greene at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

Research Published in the Journal of the National Medical Association Is Largely Ignored

The National Medical Association was established in 1895 because physicians of color were not permitted to be members of the American Medical Association. Today, the National Medical Association has 30,000 members. A recent study finds that articles published in the association's medical journal are almost never cited in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ruth Simmons to Take on New Role as Senior Adviser to the President of Harvard University

Ruth Simmons, who recently stepped down as president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, will advise the president of Harvard on efforts to support the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Her work will focus on engaging in meaningful and enduring partnerships with the nation’s HBCUs.

Harvard University Launches Major Effort to Help HBCUs Digitize Their Library Collections

The HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library announced a four-year, $6 million project to develop strategies and methods for HBCU libraries and archives to scale up the processing and digitization of their collections.

Garry W. Jenkins Will Be the First Black President of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine

Since 2016, Jenkins has been dean and the William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Prior to joining the Minnesota Law School Jenkins was a professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law for 12 years, including eight years as associate dean for academic affairs.

Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack

Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.

Danielle Holley Will Be the Twentieth President of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts

In 2014, President-elect Holley was named dean and a professor of law at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Previously she was associate dean and a professor of law at the University of South Carolina Law School. Earlier in her career, she taught at the Hofstra University School of Law in New York.

Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack

Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.

Harvard-Led Study Finds Racial Disparities in Opioid Relief for Dying Cancer Patients

In a study of 318,549 Medicare patients over the age of 65, researchers found that Black patients were 4.3 percentage points less likely to receive any opioid and 3.2 percentage points less likely to receive long-acting opioids near the end of life than White patients. Researchers also found that when Black patients received opioids, they tended to receive lower doses.

Vaughn Booker Honored by the Council of Graduate Schools for His Book on Black Jazz Musicians

The Arlt Award from the Council of Graduate Schools recognizes a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Booker is the 52nd winner of the award.

The University Consortium on Afro-Latin American Studies Will Examine Western Hemisphere Slavery

Of the 10.7 million Africans who survived the Middle Passage, 4.9 million were taken to Brazil, another 1 million arrived in Jamaica, and millions more were taken to various islands in the Caribbean. A new collaboration between Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh and four universities in Latin America will study slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Claudine Gay Appointed the Thirtieth President of Harvard University

When she takes office on July 1, Claudine Gay will be the first African American to lead the university since its founding nearly 400 years ago. Since 2018, Dr. Gay has served as the Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She first joined the Harvard faculty in 2006.

John King Appointed the Fifteenth Chancellor of the State University of New York

A former secretary of the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration, John King has been serving since 2017 as the president of The Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students in early childhood, K-12 education, and higher education.

Latest News