The Nation’s Top-Ranked University Debater Is an African American
Aaron Murphy, a senior at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was named Speaker of the Year by the American Parliamentary Debate Association.
Medical Education Pioneer Donald Wilson Honored by the American College of Physicians
In 1991, Dr. Donald E. Wilson was named dean of medicine at the University of Maryland, the first African American dean of a predominantly White medical school. He was also was the first Black president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Emory University School of Law to Name an Endowed Chair in Honor of John...
John Lewis spoke at the March on Washington and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday in March 1965. He has served his Atlanta district in Congress since 1987.
African American Adjunct Professor Wins a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
Melissa Givens is an adjunct professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and Texas Southern University in Houston. She is also a doctoral student in music at the University of Houston.
Three African Americans at Leading Universities Receive Prestigious Honors
The honorees are Roland G. Fryer Jr., the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard, assistant professor Stephen M. Avery of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Iris Outlaw, director of multicultural student programs and services at the University of Notre Dame.
Sjohnna McCray Wins the 2015 Walt Whitman Award
The adjunct instructor in the department of English at Savannah State University in Georgia is being honored by the Academy of American Poets.
University of Maryland Building a Monument to Frederick Douglass
The new Frederick Douglass Square will feature quotations from Douglass displayed on a steel wall.
Dorothy Cowser Yancy Honored by Johnson C. Smith University
Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, has paid tribute to its president emerita Dorothy Cowser Yancy by naming the new Information and Technology Hall in her honor.
Three Black Women in Higher Education Win Notable Awards
The honorees are Wanda Heading-Grant of the University of Vermont, Juanita Johnson-Bailey of the University of Georgia, and Emile M. Towns, dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
University of Virginia Names New Building After Former Slaves of University Professors
Both Isabella and William Gibbons were slaves who were owned by different professors at the University of Virginia prior to the Civil War. The new Gibbons Hall will house about 200 students this fall.
The Late Maya Angelou Honored by the U.S. Postal Service
Maya Angelou, the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, who died last spring, was honored with the issue of a Forever Stamp bearing her portrait.
Vassar College Honored for Its Commitment to Increasing Opportunities for Low-Income Students
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, is the inaugural winner of the $1 million Cooke Prize for Equity in Educational Excellence. Since 2008 the college has vastly increased its percentage of students from low-income families.
Washington and Lee University Black Law Students Win Mock Trial Competition
The team from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, competed against 18 teams in the finals competition held in Portland, Oregon. It was the only undefeated team in the three-day competition.
Honors and Awards for Black Leaders in Higher Education
The honorees are Carol Tonge Mack of the University of Cincinnati, Quincy Martin III of Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, and Jean E. Swinney of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Two Black Scholars Win Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Marlon James, an associate professor of English at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, won the fiction prize and Jericho Brown, an assistant professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, won the poetry award.
Alain Mabanckou Is a Finalist for the Man Booker International Prize
Alain Mabanckou is a professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. A native of the Congo, he taught at the University of Michigan for three years before joining the UCLA faculty in 2006.
Texas Tech Honors a Black Student It Expelled in 1985
In 1985, Timothy Cole was expelled from the university after he had been accused of raping a White woman student. He was convicted a year later and sent to prison. Cole died in prison in 1999. In 2010, DNA evidence proved he did not commit the crime.
National Communication Association Names Award After Its Former President
Orlando L. Taylor is vice president for strategic initiatives and research/director of the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He was the first African American president of the National Communication Association.
Notable Honors and Awards for Black Scholars
The honorees are Emanuel Collins of Florida State University, Souleymane Bachir Diagne of Columbia University, Bridal Pearson of the University of Baltimore, John Hudgins of Coppin State University, and Jamila Stockman of the University of California, San Diego.
Two Nigerian Writers Who Teach in the U.S. Win the Windham Campbell Prize
Helon Habila is an associate professor of creative writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Teju Cole is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College in New York.
Rutgers University Renames Institute to Honor Clement Alexander Price
Dr. Price, who died last November at the age of 69, was the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor and the founding director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience on the university's Newark campus.
Suzan-Lori Parks Wins the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History
Suzan-Lori Parks teaches creative writing at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She was honored for her play "Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3," which was first staged at The Public Theater in New York last October.
Three African American Women Scholars Honored With Awards
The honorees are Lissa Stapleton of the University of Southern Mississippi, Retha Hill of Arizona State University, and Karla FC Holloway of Duke University.
University of Chicago Honors Its First African American Faculty Member
Julian H. Lewis earned a Ph.D. in physiology and pathology at the University of Chicago in 1915 and then went on to medical school. He was hired as an instructor at the University of Chicago in 1917.
Two Scholars of the Arts Honored With Awards
Melanye White Dixon, an associate professor of dance at Ohio State University, and Kirsten Pai Buick, an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico, win prestigious awards.
University of Montana Scholar to Be Honored by the Caribbean Philosophical Association
Benedicte Boisseron is an associate professor of French and Francophone language and literature at the University of Montana. She studied at the University of Paris and then earned a Ph.D. in French literature at the University of Michigan.
Duke University Professor Wins the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry
Nathaniel Mackey is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University. The prize, which comes with a $150,000 cash award, is given out biennially by the Yale University Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Two African Americans Honored by Science Organizations
Avery August, a professor at Cornell University, was honored by the American Association for Cell Biology and Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president of student affairs at the University of Memphis, will be honored by the American Psychological Association.
Yusef Komunyakaa Awarded the Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature
Yusef Komunyakaa is the Global Distinguished Professor of English at New York University. He is being honored by the Center for Southern Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
University of Pennsylvania Professor Honored by the American Psychiatric Association
Dorothy Roberts, the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected to receive the 2015 Solomon Carter Fuller Award at the association's annual meeting in Toronto this May.
Honors and Awards Presented to Four African American Scholars
The honorees are Toni Morrison, professor emerita at Princeton, Paul Meacham, former president of the College of Southern Nevada, Adriel A. Hilton of Western Carolina University, and K. Paige Carmichael of the University of Georgia.
Mahtem Shiferraw Wins the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets
The award is presented by the African Poetry Book Fund and Prairie Schooner, the literary magazine published by the University of Nebraska Press and the creative writing program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Four Black Academic Men Win Prestigious Honors
The honorees are Derek D. Bardell of Delgado Community College, Samuel Achilefu of Washington University in St. Louis, Claiborne D. Smith of Delaware State University, and William Franklin of California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Patricia Smith Wins a Biennial Award from the Library of Congress
Patricia Smith, an associate professor of English at the College of Staten Island in New York, is being honored for her collection of poetry that examines the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to northern cities.
Yale’s James Comer Honored by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
James P. Comer is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center. He has served on the Yale University faculty since 1968.
Thea James Wins the Compassionate Caregiver Award From the Schwartz Center
Thea L. James is an associate professor of emergency medicine and assistant dean of diversity and multicultural affairs at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. James has cared on site for victims of the 9-11 terrorist attack in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and earthquakes in Iran and Haiti.
