Karen Cook Bell has been promoted to chair of the department of history and government at Bowie State University in Maryland. Currently, she holds the title of Wilson H. Elkins Professor of History. She is the editor and author of several books, including Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
Dr. Cook Bell is a magna cum laude graduate of Savannah State University in Georgia, where she majored in history. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Walter Royal III has been named the inaugural endowed professor in brain science and director of the newly established Center for Brain Health Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. With over 30 years of experience as an educator and neurologist, he previously served as chair of the department of neurobiology and director of the Neuroscience Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. His background in academia includes notable appointments at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.
A two-time Ivy League graduate, Dr. Royal earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Harvard University and his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School.
Biko Gray has joined the University of Houston faculty as an associate professor in the department of African American studies. Prior to his new role, he was an associate professor of religion at Syracuse University in New York. His scholarship centers on the philosophy of religion, ethics, and the critical examination of Black life and death. He has published several books, including Black Life Matters; Blackness, Religion, and the Subject (Duke University Press, 2022) and Phenomenology of Black Spirit (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
A graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Dr. Gray holds a master of theological studies degree from Vanderbilt Divinity School in Tennessee, as well as master’s degree and Ph.D. in religion from Rice University in Houston.
Mbaye Lo has been named director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center and Duke University Middle East Studies Center. He first joined the Duke faculty in 2008 as a lecturer and now holds the rank of associate professor of the practice of Asian and Middle Eastern studies. Throughout his career, he has published nine books, most recently, I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America (University of North Carolina Press, 2023).
Dr. Lo holds a master’s degree in American history and a Ph.D. from Cleveland State University in Ohio.
