Shaina Phenix, an assistant professor of English at Elon University in North Carolina, is the winner of the 2023 Miller Williams Poetry Prize from the University of Arkansas Press. Phenix will receive a cash prize, and her manuscript To Be Named Something Else will be published in the Miller Williams Poetry Series in the spring of 2023.
Taking on new roles relating to diversity are Chyke A. Doubeni at Ohio State University, Sonel Shropshire at Delaware State University, Phyllis Esposito at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Mark Black at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, and Sheila Lloyd at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are now home to a rich collection of research materials from the life and career of Yusef A. Lateef, a Grammy-winning musician who played a pioneering role in bringing Middle Eastern and Asian sounds to American jazz.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton University, cancelled a series of public events after she received death threats after she gave the commencement address at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.