Gerald Jaynes was named the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, African American Studies, and Urban Studies. Prior to coming to Yale in 1977, he was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. His book – Branches Without Roots: Genesis of the Black Working Class in the American South (Oxford University Press, 1986) – revised economists’ and historians’ understanding of the economics of Reconstruction and the origins of sharecropping in the American South. Professor Jaynes holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois.
Emily Greenwood is the John M. Musser Professor of Classics. She is a scholar of ancient Greek prose literature and the reuse of ancient Greek and Roman classics in modernity. Professor Greenwood has served as chair of the classics department and holds a secondary appointment in the department of African American studies. Dr. Greenwood joined the faculty at Yale in 2009 after teaching at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of several books including Afro-Greeks: Dialogues Between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2010). Professor Greenwood holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Cambridge in England.
Tavia Nyong’o was appointed William Lampson Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, Professor of American Studies, and Professor of African American Studies. Before coming to Yale he was acting chair and associate professor of performance studies at New York University. His latest book, Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018), won the Barnard Hewitt Award for best book in theater and performance studies. Professor Nyong’o is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. As a Marshall Scholar, he earned a master’s degree at the University of Birmingham in England. Dr. Nyong’o received a Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University.
