Tag: Harvard University
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.
Two African American Men Who Have Been Appointed to Distinguished Faculty Positions
Shawn Ginwright has been named professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Grant Warner will serve as the inaugural Bank of America Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Harvard University’s Makeda Best Created the Photography Catalogue of the Year
Makeda Best, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, recently received the prestigious Photography Catalogue of the Year award at the 2022 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards. Dr. Best was honored for her 2021 publication Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography Since 1970.
African Americans and Rhodes Scholarships
Typically the Rhodes Trust does not reveal the race or ethnicity of scholarship winners. Of this year's 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States, it appears that four are African Americans.
In Memoriam: Frank Sidney Jones, 1928-2022
In 1968, Frank Sidney Jones was named executive director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1971 he was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and became the first African American to achieve tenure at MIT.
Jonathan Lee Walton Appointed the Eighth President of the Princeton Theological Seminary
Dr. Walton has been serving as dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also holds the Presidential Chair of Religion and Society at the divinity school and is dean of Wait Chapel on campus. Before coming to Wake Forest in 2020, Dr. Walton was the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the University’s Memorial Church at Harvard University.
Three African American Men Who Have Been Appointed to New Faculty Positions
Thomas W. Mitchell has joined the faculty at the Boston College Law School. Jarvis Givens has been promoted to associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and Walter T. Tillman was named an associate professor of education at Hampton University in Virgina.
Anita Allen Honored by the Hastings Center for Her Work in Bioethics
Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Allen was recognized for outstanding contributions to law and philosophy and to their practical applications in medicine, science, and public affairs.
Thomas Jinnings: The First Black Student at Harvard?
Who was the first African American student at Harvard? This question is not as easy to answer as one might think – and, with the recent discovery of a name buried in an 1841 Harvard catalogue, a new possible answer has come to light.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Four African American Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties
Taking on new duties are Valerie Giddings at North Carolina A&T State University, Collin Stultz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robin R. Davis at Virginia Union University in Richmond, and Giselle Armond Abron at the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine.
Report Finds That Remote Learning During the Pandemic May Widen Racial Gaps in Achievement
A new report finds that high-poverty schools both spent more weeks in remote instruction during the early pandemic and suffered large losses in achievement when they did so. Districts that remained largely in-person, however, lost relatively little ground.
Emery N. Brown Selected to Share the Gruber Neuroscience Prize
Awarded annually by the Gruber Foundation, the prize honors scientists for major discoveries that have advanced the understanding of the nervous system. The prize, which includes a $500,000 award, will be presented to Dr. Brown and his co-recipients on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Five Black Scholars Who Have Been Assigned to New Positions or Duties
The five Black scholars who have been assigned to new roles or duties are Antwan Jones at George Washington University, Kiron Skinner at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Marty Baylor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Bunmi Olatunji at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and James W. Mickens at Harvard University.
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
The Troubling Decline of Black Men in Academic Medicine
A new study led by Sophia C. Kamran, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, finds that over the past generation while female representation rose dramatically in U.S. medical schools, the number of Black men in academic medicine stagnated or decreased.
Rosephanye Powell Wins the Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award From Harvard University
Professor Powell teaches applied voice, art song literature and vocal pedagogy at Auburn University in Alabama. She also serves as the Women’s Chorus conductor and the Auburn University Gospel Choir’s co-conductor.
Harvard University Issues Extensive Report on Its Ties to Slavery
Harvard presidents and other leaders, as well as its faculty and staff, enslaved more than 70 individuals, some of whom labored on campus. Harvard is creating a $100 million endowment to help remedy past wrongs and the lingering effects of slavery on people of color.
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Honors Emery N. Brown
Emery N. Brown is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and the Warren M. Zapol Professor at Harvard Medical School.
New Scholarship Honors the First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Divinity School
A new scholarship at Yale Divinity School honors Rena Karefa-Smart, the first Black woman to graduate from the school. Dr. Karefa-Smart was also the first Black woman to earn a theology doctorate from Harvard Divinity School and the first female professor to earn tenure at the Howard University School of Divinity.
In Memoriam: Charles Vert Willie, 1927-2022
Charles Willie taught at Syracuse University from 1950 to 1974. He was the first Black faculty member to be awarded tenure at the university. He later served on the faculty at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.
Ruth Simmons Announces She Plans to Step Down as President of Prairie View A&M University
Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, has announced that she plans to retire but is willing to continue serving in the role until her successor is named. Dr. Simmons came out of retirement in 2017 to lead the historically Black university.
Two African Americans Who Have Been Named to Serve as Deans
Stephen L. Ball has been appointed dean of students at Harvard Law School and Lakesia Tucker has been appointed acting dean of the College of Graduate & Professional Studies at South Carolina State University.
University of Michigan Provost Susan Collins to Lead the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
When she takes office on July 1, Susan Collins will be only the second Black president and first Black woman to head one of the 12 Federal Reserve banks in the century-plus history of the institution.
Harvard Study Documents the Persisting Problem of Environmental Racism
The term "environmental racism" was first used about 40 years ago and brought attention to the fact that African Americans are more likely than their White peers to be exposed to air, water, and other types of pollution. New research shows that environmental racism is still very much an issue.
Four Black Scholars Who Are Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities
The Black scholars appointed to new posts are Deval L. Patrick at Harvard University, Kristie Soares at the University of Colorado Boulder, Kirsten Pai Buick at the University of New Mexico, and Jane Okech at the University of Vermont.
In Memoriam: Edward Daryl Irons, 1923-2022
Dr. Irons, the second Black person to earn a doctorate at Harvard Business School, was the founding dean of the business school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He later served as dean of the business school at Clark Atlanta University from 1990 to 1995.
In Memoriam: Gwendolyn Gordon, 1980-2021
Dr. Gordon was an assistant professor in the department of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the School of Arts and Sciences’ department of anthropology. She held degrees from three different Ivy League universities.
Gene Wade to Lead the Propel Center, a Hub for HBCU Innovation and Learning
Gene Wade most recently served as founder and CEO of Honors Pathway in Oakland, California, a social venture that enables low-income students to attend their first year of college at no cost while receiving over 500 hours of in-person coaching and mentoring.
Kimberlé Crenshaw Receives the Top Honor From the Association of American Law Schools
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is the Promise Institute Professor of Human Rights at the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia University. She was honored by the Association of American Law Schools for her work on critical race theory and intersectionality."
In Memoriam: Carol Lani Guinier, 1950-2022
Lani Guinier was the first woman of color to be a tenured professor at Harvard Law School. Earlier, she taught for 10 years at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania.
Anita Allen Wins the APA’s Highest Honor for Service to Philosophy
Professor Allen is an internationally renowned expert on philosophical dimensions of privacy and data protection law, ethics, bioethics, legal philosophy, women’s rights, and diversity in higher education. In 2018-19, she was the first Black woman to serve as president of the American Philosophical Association.
In Memoriam: Tyler Stovall, 1954-2021
Tyler Stovall was a renowned historian of modern Europe, professor, and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. From 2014 to 2020, he was dean of humanities at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Vincent Brown Wins the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center
Vincent Brown, a professor of African and African American studies and American history at Harvard University, will share the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. The prize is awarded each year to the “best book(s) written in English about slavery, abolition and their legacies across all borders and all time.”
