Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman has been named an associate professor in the Center of African and African American Studies and the department of sociology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She comes to her new position from the University of South Florida, where she serves as the College of Arts and Sciences Racial Justice Initiative Chair. She is the author of The Color of Love: Racial Features, Stigma, and Socialization in Black Brazilian Families (University of Texas Press, 2015) and Second-Class Daughters: Black Brazilian Women and Informal Adoptions as Modern Slavery in Brazil (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
Dr. Hordge-Freeman is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she double-majored in Spanish and biological sciences. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Emilie Townes has been named the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion and Black Studies at Boston University. She most recently served as the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Ethics and Society and University Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her academic expertise in religion, woman’s studies, and Black studies led her to authoring her book, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Dr. Townes holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctor of ministry degree from the University of Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. in religion in society and personality from Northwestern University in Illinois.
Kerwin Charles has been named the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at Yale University. For the past five years, he has served as the Indra K. Nooyi Dean and Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management.
Dr. Charles received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. He holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Jan Ivery has been appointed associate dean for academic affairs in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. She has held the position in the interim for the past year. As an associate professor of social work, she has held several leadership roles with the university including assistant dean for academic programs, interim director of the School of Social Work, and director of the Center for Collaborative Social Work.
Dr. Ivery is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in sociology. She holds a master of social work degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Marcus Lee has been named an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton University in New Jersey. He has served as a lecturer with the university for over two decades, specializing in gender and sexuality studies and American politics.
Dr. Lee is a graduate of historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he majored in sociology. He holds a Ph.D. in political science with a certificate in gender and sexuality studies from the University of Chicago.
