Five Black Scholars Taking on New Faculty Roles at Major Universities

Sherman Jackson, who holds the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, and is a professor of religion and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California was named a University Distinguished Professor. Dr. Jackson focuses his research on the realities of modern Islam in the West, especially Muslim communities in America.

Dr. Jackson, who holds a Ph.D. in Oriental studies from the University of Pennsylvania, is the author or translator of several books including Initiative to Stop the Violence: Sadat’s Assassins and the Renunciation of Political Violence (Yale University Press, 2015).

Adji Bousso Dieng will join the Princeton University faculty next fall as an assistant professor of computer science. She is an expert in artificial intelligence and has been working as a research scientist at Google.

Dr. Dieng is a graduate of Télécom Paris. She earned a master’s degree in applied statistics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a Ph.D. in statistics from Columbia University in New York City. Before seeking her Ph.D., Dr. Dieng was a junior professional associate at the World Bank.

John Dabiri was appointed the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Dabiri joined the Caltech faculty in 2005 but left in 2015 to teach at Stanford University. He returned to Caltech in 2019.

Professor Dabiri, the son of Nigerian immigrants, is a 2001 graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He earned a master’s degree in aeronautics and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Caltech.

Frederick Douglas Dixon, an assistant professor of African American and diaspora studies at the University of Wyoming, was named director of the Black Studies Center at the university. Dr. Dixon joined the faculty at the university in 2018.

Dr. Dixon is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he majored in sociology and criminal justice. He holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and development from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in education, policy, organization, and leadership from the University of Illinois.

Robyn Ridley was appointed an assistant professor of the practice in integrative sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She has an extensive research background in nanoparticle synthesis methods and nanocomposite materials

Dr. Ridley earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in New York City. She holds a  master’s degree and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

AAUP Urges Institutions to Fund, Protect, and Publicize DEI Initiatives in Academia

The AAUP urges academic institutions to recruit and retain diverse faculty and student bodies and to "fund, protect, and publicize research in all fields that contributes to the common good and responds more widely to the needs of a diverse public."

In Memoriam: Ralphenia D. Pace

A scholar of food and nutritional sciences, Dr. Pace taught at Tuskegee University in Alabama for more than 40 years.

Black Matriculants Are Down at U.S. Medical Schools

In 2024, the share of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools increased by 2.8 percent from 2023. However, the share of Black medical school matriculants decreased by 11.6 percent. Notably, there has been year-over-year progress in overall Black medical school representation, which has risen to from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 10.3 percent in 2024.

Featured Jobs