Seven African American Scholars Who Have Been Assigned New Roles or Duties in Higher Education

Kobena Mercer was named the Charles P. Stevenson Chair in Art History and the Humanities at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He will hold a joint appointment in the art history and visual culture program in the undergraduate college and the Center for Curatorial Studies. Professor Mercer, who comes to Bard from Yale University, will assume his faculty position in the fall.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Mercer taught at New York University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of London in England.

Angela Owens has been named director of New Mexico State University’s Glass Family Research Institute for Early Childhood Studies. The institute seeks to influence policy and practices related to New Mexico’s young children, families, and early childhood educators.

Dr. Owens earned a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in teaching, learning, and culture with an emphasis in literacy and bi-literacy education from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Hanétha Vété-Congolo was named the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Her latest book is Nous Sommes Martinquaises: Pawol en Bouches de Femmes Chataignes (Editions L’Harmattan, 2020).

Dr. Vété-Congolo holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane.

Aneeka Ayanna Henderson was promoted to associate professor of sexuality, women’s, and gender studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She was also granted tenure. Dr. Henderson is affiliated with the English and Black studies departments as well as the film and media studies program

A native of Chicago, Dr. Henderson is the author of Veil and Vow: Marriage Matters in Contemporary African American Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

Kenyon Bonner, who currently serves as dean of students at the University of Pittsburgh and as a professor of practice in the university’s School of Education, will now serve as vice provost for student affairs. With this new role, Dr. Bonner will serve as the liaison to student affairs on the Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville campuses and will be a standing member of the chancellor’s senior leadership team.

Dr. Bonner is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he majored in philosophy and psychology. He holds a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Kent State University in Ohio and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Chandice Haste-Jackson, associate teaching professor in the department of human development and family science at Syracuse University in New York, has been given the added duties as interim director of the First-Year Seminar program at the university. Dr. Haste-Jackson teaches courses on intimate relationships and gender roles, family development, relationship development and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

A graduate of Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. Dr. Haste-Jackson earned a master’s degree in behavioral sciences at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. in child and family studies from Syracuse University.

Derek Hicks, an associate professor in the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was named director of the new Center for Research, Engagement, and Collaboration in African American Life at the university. Dr. Hicks is the author of Reclaiming Spirit in the Black Faith Tradition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Dr. Hicks is a graduate of Grambling State University in Louisiana. He holds a master’s degree from the Dallas Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Rice University in Houston.

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