The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation has announced the selection of 25 individuals in this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows. The honors, frequently referred to as the “Genius Awards,” include a $625,000 stipend over the next five years which the individuals can use as they see fit.
Valerie Smith, who took office as the 15th president of highly rated Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania on July 1, 2015, has had her contract extended through 2025. Before becoming president of Swarthmore College, Dr. Smith was dean of the college and the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University.
Less than 2 percent of the nation’s registered architects are Black. To increase diversity in the field, Princeton University has launched its ArcPrep program that provides support, guidance, and academic and cultural enrichment to high school students who are typically underrepresented in the discipline.
Appointed to new faculty roles are David Van Valen at the California Institute of Technology, Lawrence Ralph at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Will Power at Spelman College in Atlanta.
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.
Walter Rucker, Eddie Glaude Jr., and Reginald McGee were named to new positions in academia.
Tera W. Hunter, the Edwards Professor of History and professor of African American studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in women’s history and/or feminist theory as well as the Littleton-Griswold Prize in U.S. law and society from the American Historical Association.
Taking on new assignments are Nikki Young at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, Patrick T. Smith at Duke University in North Carolina, Bayo Holsey at Emory University in Atlanta, Maurice Emmanuel Parent at Boston College, and Tera Hunter at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Wallace Best, professor of religion and African American studies and associated faculty member in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University, has received the 2018 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies.
The Princeton University Library has established a collection of current newspapers published for African American audiences throughout the United States. The new collection contains printed copies of 72 newspapers from various cities and towns in 32 states.
Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Last month, Princeton University in New Jersey held its inaugural Archives Research and Collaborative (ARCH) program on campus. Fourteen students from five historically Black colleges and universities spent five days on the Princeton campus with the goal of interesting them in careers in archives research.
Melissa Thomas-Hunt, a professor of management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville was given the added duties as faculty director for Moore College at the university. Marshall Brown was hired as an associate professor of architecture at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Taking on new roles are Sanyu Mojola at Princeton University in New Jersey, Hillary A. Potter at the University of Colorado, Echol Nix Jr. at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Tiffany A. Flowers at Georgia State University Perimeter College, and Kimya Dennis at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In 2016, Blacks were 8.4 times more likely than Whites to be diagnosed with HIV, whereas in 2005 they were 7.9 times more likely. The number Black men diagnosed with HIV increased from 9,969 in 2005 to 12,890 in 2016.
Portraits of Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison and Sir Arthur Lewis have been added to the university’s collection. Eight other portraits have been commissioned. Three of the new portraits will feature African Americans.
Dr. McNair has been serving as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wagner College on Staten Island in New York City. When she takes office on July 1, Dr. McNair will be the first woman to lead Tuskegee University.
The board of trustees of Princeton University in New Jersey has voted to honor two former slaves who played a role in the university’s early history.
Tera W. Hunter, a professor of history and African American studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been awarded the Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women’s and/or Gender History from the Organization of American Historians.
Taking on new duties are Nsombi B. Ricketts at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, Renita Miller at Princeton University in New Jersey, Keith E. Hall at Azusa Pacific University in California, Neijma Celestine-Donnor at the University of Maryland, and Lisa Griffin at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Dr. Ford is professor of surgery and vice chair for clinical affairs at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. In 2011, he was honored by the American Association of Medical Colleges for his humanitarian work following the major earthquake in Haiti.
At Princeton, Woodrow Wilson had refused to consider the admission of Black students. As President of the United States, he racially segregated the federal government workforce and appointed White supremacists to his cabinet.
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.
Lauret Savoy, the David B. Truman Professor of Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, won an award for excellence in environmental creative writing for her book Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape.
Christina M. Greer, of Fordham University, was named the 2018 McSilver Fellow in Residence at the School of Social Work of New York University and Moon Molson will be joining the faculty at Princeton University as an assistant professor of visual arts.
Following the lead of other peer institutions, Princeton University has debuted a new website documenting research on the university’s historical ties to the slavery. The first nine presidents of the university owned slaves at one point in their lives.
Ladee Hubbard, who teaches in the Africana studies program at Tulane University in New Orleans, is being honored for her debut novel The Talented Ribkins, the story of an African American family whose members have unique superpowers.
Dr. Simmons has been serving as interim president of the university since July. She served as the 18th president of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2001 to 2012. Before becoming president of Brown University, Dr. Simmons was president of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Sherri Burr, Regents Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, is retiring. She has taught at the law school since 1988.
Black women faculty in new roles are Sherine Obare at Western Michigan University, Erinn Tucker at Georgetown University, Alyssa L. Harris at Boston College, Reena N. Goldthree at Princeton University, Carolyn Gentle-Genitty at IUPUI, and Eleanor Brown at Pennsylvania State University.
Ruth Simmons, who served as the 18th president of Brown University, the Ivy League educational institution in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2001 to 2012, has been named the interim president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas.
Dr. Jarrett has been serving as associate dean of the faculty in the humanities division at Boston University in Massachusetts. There, he has also been a professor of English and a professor of African American studies.
Tracy Smith is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University, and director of the university’s Program in Creative Writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts. She joined the faculty at Princeton in 2005.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton University, cancelled a series of public events after she received death threats after she gave the commencement address at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.
Rachel L. Swarns will join the faculty at New York University. Jennifer Hamer, a professor at the University of Kansas, will serve as vice provost for diversity. Autumn Womack was hired to the faculty at Princeton and Ibram X. Kendi is joining the faculty at American University.
William R. Scott was a professor emeritus of history at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at Lehigh University as a full professor in 1992 and served as the first director of the university’s African American studies program.
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