Honors & Awards

An Endowed Scholarship Fund Honors Three Pioneering Emory Professors

The Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta has established an endowed scholarship program to provide financial aid for students in its Black Church Studies Program.

Two Black Scientists Named Fellows of the American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society recently named its new class of fellows for 2013. Of the 96 new fellows, it appears that only two are African Americans. They will be inducted as fellows at the ACS annual meeting in Indianapolis on September 9.

South African Scholar Is the First International Winner of the Spendlove Prize

Jonathan D. Jansen, vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, was named the recipient of the 2013 Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance, awarded by the University of California at Merced.

Emory University Professor Wins Book Award

Kevin Young, the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University in Atlanta, has won the 2013 PEN Open Book Award from the PEN American Center. The Harvard University graduate is the author of seven collections of poetry.

University of Tennessee Professor Named the Physician of the Year

Samuel Dagogo-Jack, professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, has been chosen as the Physician of the Year in internal medicine by the National Medical Association.

Texas Tech Scholar Named Teacher of the Year in Spanish and Portuguese

Comfort Pratt, professor of bilingual education and diversity studies at Texas Tech University, was named the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the college and university level by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

Two African American Women Win Academic Awards

Crystal Sanders, an assistant professor of history at Penn State, won two awards for her doctoral dissertation on Black women in Mississippi and Sylvaia Schell of the University of Georgia was honored for her work to promote diversity in international education.

Leroy Keith Jr. Given the Title of President Emeritus of Morehouse College

Leroy Keith Jr served as the eighth president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1987 to 1994. Now, nearly two decades after his retirement, the college's board of trustees is bestowing on him the title of president emeritus.

University of Maryland Award Will Honor Sports Journalists Who Work for Racial Equality

The award is named for Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith, two African American journalists who documented Jackie Robinson's effort to racially integrate Major League Baseball.

Master’s Degree Student Wins Award for Best First Fiction

R. Kayeen Thomas, a student in the master of divinity program at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., was the recipient of the Phillis Wheatley Book Award for First Fiction at the 15th annual Harlem Book Fair in New York City.

Two Educators to Be Inducted Into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame

The IAAHF was founded in 1995 in Des Moines but is now located in the Black Cultural Center at Iowa State University. Since its inception, 56 members have been inducted into the IAAHF. This year two of the three new members have ties to higher education.

Two African American Scholars Honored for Service

Cheryl Swanier of Fort Valley State University was honored by the National Center for Women and Information Technology and M. Christopher Brown II, president of Alcorn State University will be honored in November by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Morehouse College Graduate Wins the Caine Prize for African Writing

Tope Folarin, a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and a Rhodes Scholar, was honored for his short story entitled "Miracle," about a blind healing prophet who pays a visit to an evangelical church in Texas.

Williams College Scholar Wins Dissertation Prize

Candis Watt-Smith, an assistant professor of political science at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has been selected to receive the Best Dissertation Award from the race and ethnic politics section of the American Political Science Association.

Three African Americans Presented With the National Medal of Arts

Ernest J. Gaines is the writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Joan Myers Brown is the founder of the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts and the Philadelphia Dance Company and Allen Toussaint is a New Orleans-born musician, composer, and record producer.

Two African Americans Receive Top Honors

Michelle Johnson of Boston University was named Educator of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. Benjamin Quillan of California State University received the top honor given by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Anna Deavere Smith Awarded the National Humanities Medal

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress and playwright and University Professor in the Department of Performance Studies in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She is the only African American among the 12 individuals honored with the medal this year.

Two African American Professors Named NEA Jazz Masters

Richard Davis of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Anthony Braxton of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, will be honored as 2014 Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts next January at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Two African Americans Honored With Prestigious Awards

Professor Linda Florence Callahan of North Carolina A&T State University is being honored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and Alcorn State University President M. Christopher Brown II won an award from the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

Keith Wilson Honored for His Work in Multicultural Rehabilitation

Keith B. Wilson, dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, has been selected to receive the 2013 Virgie Winston-Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association for Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns.

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