Long Island University Professor Wins Excellence in Teaching Award
Michael J.K. Bokor, assistant professor of English at Long Island University in New York, is the first African scholar to serve as a full-time faculty member in the university’s English department since the establishment of LIU in 1926.
City College of New York to Rename School to Honor Colin Powell
The Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership will include several academic departments including anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. In addition, the school will include academic programs in Black studies, women's studies, and Latin American and Latino studies.
Notable Awards for Black Scholars
The honorees are Janice R. Franklin of Alabama State University, Jack Thomas of Western Illinois University, civil rights icon Myrlie Evers-Williams, Gladius Lewis of the University of Memphis, and Isaac Crumbly of Fort Valley State University.
Twins Named Co-Valedictorians at Spelman College
Kirstie and Kristie Bronner both achieved perfect 4.0 grade point averages while earning bachelor's degrees in music. Both their mother and grandmother are Spelman College alumnae.
Wesleyan University’s Anthony Braxton Wins $225,000 Doris Duke Artist Award
The award program, established in 2011, supports performing artists in contemporary dance, theatre, jazz, and related interdisciplinary work. The award comes with a $225,000 honorarium. Braxton is the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music at Wesleyan.
Ruth Simmons Awarded the French Legion of Honor
The former president of Smith College and the former president of Brown University, received the highest honor bestowed by the French government. Dr. Simmons continues to serve on the Brown University faculty as a professor of comparative literature and Africana studies.
African American Scholar Honored by the Council for the Study of Community Colleges
J. Luke Wood, an assistant professor of administration, rehabilitation, and postsecondary education at San Diego State University, was honored for vast scholarship pertaining to community colleges, particularly in relation to African American men.
Brown University’s Francoise Hamlin Is Nominated for History Book Prize
Francoise Hamlin is one of seven finalists for the 2012 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prizes. Each year, the group gives out awards for the best first books and best articles written by women who reside in North America.
Two African American Scholars Win Prestigious Awards
Alvin Thornton of Howard University was named the alumnus of the year by Morehouse College. Harvey Fields received an award for distinguished service from Washington University for his efforts to ensure the academic success of undergraduate students.
Sylvester James Gates Awarded the Mendel Medal From Villanova University
Sylvester James Gates, the John S. Toll Professor of Physics and director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland in College Park, was named the winner of the Mendel Medal, given out by Villanova University.
Honors for Two African American Academics
Amilcar Shabazz of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was honored by UnityFirst.com and John E. Pierce of Creighton University in Omaha won a leadership award from the Urban League of Nebraska.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
University of Kansas Historian Wins Prestigious Book Prize
Randal Jelks, associate professor of American studies and African American studies at the University of Kansas, has been awarded the 2013 Lillian Smith Book Award for his biography of long-time Morehouse College president Benjamin Elijah Mays.
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.
Patricia Hill Collins to Be Awarded the Gittler Prize
Patricia Hill Collins, a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park, has been selected to receive the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from Brandeis University for outstanding scholarly contributions in the field of racial, ethnic, and religious relations.
Towson University Scholar Honored by the National Institutes of Health
Sharon Jones-Eversley, an assistant professor of family studies, has been honored with the distinguished PRIDE Award. PRIDE is an acronym for the Program to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research.
Nontombi Naomi Tutu Wins Social Justice Award
Nontombi Naomi Tutu, a student at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, received the Otis Social Justice Award from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
Jazz Educator Honored at the Kennedy Center
Nathan Davis, professor emeritus of music at the University of Pittsburgh, received the BNY Mellon Jazz 2013 Living Legacy Award honoring jazz masters who have achieved distinction in jazz performance and education.
