Here is this week’s listing of African American faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the United States who have been appointed to new positions or have been assigned new duties.
Of the latest cohort of 24 MacArthur fellows, it appears that six are Black. Three currently hold academic posts at colleges or universities.
Beverly Daniel Tatum, who served as president of Spelman College in Atlanta from 2002 to 2015, has been selected to receive the Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Access, Equity, and Diversity.
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.
Here is this week’s roundup of Black scholars who have been hired or assigned new duties at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Taking on new duties are Getiria Onsongo at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Samir Bandaogo at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Yvette Murphy-Erby at the University of Arkansas, and Ann-Margaret Esnard at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
The prize honors an individual who has made lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations. Dr. Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College in Atlanta, will receive a medal and a $25,000 prize at a ceremony in October 2018.
Dr. Jackson’s appointment includes duties in the departments of English and history as well as the Center for Africana Studies. He plans on establishing a new institute to preserve and showcase the arts, history, and culture of the city of Baltimore.
Of the 257 student accepted for early admission at Williams College, 27 self-identify as African American. Thus, African Americans are 10.5 percent of all early admits at Williams this year. At Wesleyan University, there was a whopping 56 percent increase in African American early applicants.
Sherine O. Obare, professor of chemistry at Western Michigan University was given a new administrative post. Professor Jay Hoggard was awarded tenure at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Tarell Alvin McCraney was appointed chair of the department of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.
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.
In the past, faculty members who taught courses in African American studies were members of established academic departments on campus. Now the university has hired the first two core faculty members of its African American studies program that was recently granted departmental status.
African American faculty members taking on new roles are Kali Nicole Gross at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, La Marr Jurelle Bruce of the University of Maryland, College Park, Jennifer Hamer of the University of Kansas, and Talitha LeFlouria at the University of Virginia.
Black faculty members taking on new roles are Susan Gooden of Virginia Commonwealth University, Robyn K. Autry at Wesleyan University, Suzanne L. Weeks at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Hadiyah-Nicole Green at Morehouse School of Medicine and Jack Drummond of The Lincoln University.
Khalil Johnson was hired as an assistant professor of African American studies. Courtney J. Patterson is a new assistant professor of sociology and Royette Tavernier is a new assistant professor of psychology.
The honorees are Karelle Aiken of Georgia Southern University, Gina Athena Ulysse of Wesleyan University, Adriel A. Hilton of Western Carolina University, author Jacqueline Woodson at CUNY, Carrie Parker-Taylor, the first Black woman at Indiana University, and Karen Faison of Virginia State University.
The scholars in new teaching roles ate Carolyn Barnes at Duke University, Tondra-Loder-Jackson at the University of Alabama Birmingham, H. Shellae Versey at Wesleyan University, Kisha Lashley at the University of Virginia, and Vanessa Tyson at Scripps College.
An op-ed piece on the Black Lives Matter movement in the student newspaper produced protests and calls for the student government to stop funding the paper.
Iris Mack is a new lecturer at the Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Gina Athena Ulysse was promoted to full professor of anthropology at Wesleyan University and Lorelle D. Semley was promoted to associate professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross.
Renee Johnson-Thornton joined the staff at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1998 and has served in a number of administrative positions. She is a native of Jamaica and was raised in Brooklyn.
Professor Carby has been selected to received the 2014 Jay B. Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies. The award is sponsored by the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association.
Theodore M. Shaw, the former director-counselor and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, was appointed director of the Center for Civil Rights at the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will also hold an endowed chair in law.
Chuck Stone was a Tuskegee Airman, a veteran journalism, an esteemed professor of journalism, and a frequent contributor to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
Lyle Ashton Harris was chosen as the winner of the 2014 David C. Driskell Prize, given to an early career scholar or artist who has made an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history.
Included among the 30 finalists are Jesmyn Ward an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama. Hilton Als and Chimanmanda Ngozi Adichie, who have both taught at U.S. universities, are also finalists.
Richard Davis of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Anthony Braxton of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, will be honored as 2014 Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts next January at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City.
The award program, established in 2011, supports performing artists in contemporary dance, theatre, jazz, and related interdisciplinary work. The award comes with a $225,000 honorarium. Braxton is the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music at Wesleyan.
Lois Brown was granted tenure at Wesleyan University. Jeffrey Redding is teaching choral conducting at West Virginia University and Loretta J. Ross is activist-in-residence at Smith College.
Thomas Parham, Sheridan Quarles Kingsberry, Billy Thomas, and Stacey Close have been assigned to new administrative positions.
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