Two African American Women Appointed to Dean Positions in Massachusetts

Gretchen Long, the Frederick Rudolph ’42 – Class of 1965 Professor of American Culture at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, will serve as the next dean of the college. Professor Long joined the department of history at Williams College in 2003. She served as chair of Africana studies at Williams from 2012 to 2014 and also has served on the advisory committee of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.

A historian and scholar of race and medicine, Dr. Long is the author of Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Dr. Long is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She holds a master’s degree in history and a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Chicago.

Margaret Vendryes has been appointed dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, effective June 1. Dr. Vendryes is joining Tufts from York College of the City University of New York, where she is a professor, director of the Fine Arts Gallery, and chair of the department of performing and fine arts. Professor Vendryes is the author of Barthé: A Life in Sculpture (University Press of Mississippi, 2008).

“I’m hoping that I can be the face of change,” Dr. Vendryes said, “and that I can be the one that shows that the school is entering a new era and that there is something new to learn about what the school is doing and why it is doing it. As a Black, queer practicing artist, historian, and curator, I openly represent, and advocate for, these groups and professions. But my work also encompasses the full spectrum of the visual arts and all who claim a place within them.”

Dr. Vendryes is a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts. She earned a master’s degree in art history at Tulane University in New Orleans and a Ph.D. at Princeton University in New Jersey.

 

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

In Memoriam: Maxine Mimms, 1928-2024

Dr. Mimms served as a faculty member at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington for two decades, including 10 years as the founding director of the college's Tacoma campus.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Nonwhite Patients Are Significantly More Likely to Have Preventative Care Insurance Claims Denied

Scholars from the University of Toronto have found non-White patients are nearly twice as likely as White patients to have an insurance claim denied. On average, they also pay more out-of-pocket costs when their claims are denied.

Leslie Rodriguez-McClellon Named Seventeenth President of Arkansas Baptist College

Prior to her new role, Dr. Rodriguez-McClellon was the vice president of community relations and governmental affairs at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh. She has a robust background in higher education, including service as the first African American president of Rochester Community and Technical College in Minnesota.

Featured Jobs