In 2002, Cornel West left Harvard University after a public dispute with then Harvard president Lawrence Summers. Dr. Summers questioned Dr. West’s scholarship and hinted that he was spending too much time on less than serious academic work. These claims were thoroughly refuted by Theodore Cross, editor of JBHE, in the Spring 2002 issue of this journal in an article entitled “Cornel West Matters: His Peer Citation Record Stands Near the Very Top.”
Dr. West left Harvard and served as the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. In 2012, he rejoined the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he had taught twice before.
Now, according to published reports, Dr. West is returning to Harvard University. He will serve as professor of the practice of public philosophy with a joint appointment in the Harvard Divinity School and the department of African and African American studies.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, Dr. West earned a Ph.D. at Princeton University.
