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.
Dr. Dwight McBride is the Daniel Hale Williams Professor of African American studies, English, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. There, he also serves as dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for graduate education.
Princeton University in New Jersey has announced that West College, one of the oldest buildings on campus, will be renamed to honor professor emerita Toni Morrison. And an auditorium will be renamed to honor professor emeritus Sir Arthur Lewis. Both scholars are Nobel Prize winners.
Valerie Smith, president of the highly rated Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, was the recipient of an honorary doctor of letters degree from Hong Kong Baptist University. Dr. Smith was honored for her work on diversity, inclusion, and curricular innovation during her first year as president of the Swarthmore.
The award was established in 1958 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to recognize lifetime achievement in literature. Professor Morrison will be honored at a ceremony in April in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The three African American faculty members appointed to new positions are Donald R. Easton-Brooks of the University of South Dakota, Tiphanie Yanique at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and Laurence Ralph at Princeton University in New Jersey.
A decade ago, there were 1,110 Black students in the entering classes at the eight Ivy League schools. In 2016, there are 1,503, a 35 percent increase. Four of the eight Ivy League schools have an entering class that is more than 11 percent Black. A decade ago, the leader stood at 9.6 percent.
In 2002, Cornel West left Harvard University after a public dispute with then Harvard president Lawrence Summers. Now, according to published reports, Dr. West is returning to Harvard University as professor of the practice of public philosophy.
Danielle Allen was appointed the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, effective January 1. This is the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member at Harvard. Currently there are 24 University Professors at Harvard.
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