Tag: Harvard University
Kerry James Marshall’s Portrait of Henry Louis Gate Jr. Donated to Cambridge University
Kerry James Marshall has donated his portrait of Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Jr. to the University of Cambridge. Professor Gates holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English language and literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge. The work is Marshall's first portrait of a living person.
Melissa Gilliam Will Be the First African American President of Boston University
Dr. Gilliam has been provost at Ohio State University since July 2021. Earlier, she was vice provost, the Ellen H. Block Distinguished Service Professor of Health Justice, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. She will become president of Boston University on July 1, 2024.
Five Black Faculty Members Named MacArthur Fellows
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recently announced the 20 latest recipients in its fellowship program, commonly referred to as “genius grants.” Of this year's 20 winners, five are Black scholars with current ties to the academic world.
Six Black Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties in Higher Education
Taking on new roles are Imani Perry at Harvard University, Tyrone McKinley Freeman at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Alisha Butler at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Gordon Ibeanu at North Carolina Central University, Linda Lausell Bryant in the Silver School of Social Work at New York University, and Andrea Dawn Frazier at Columbus State University in Georgia
Marla Frederick Will Be the Next Dean of Harvard Divinity School
Dr. Frederick is currently the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Prior to her appointment at Emory, she served on the Harvard faculty from 2003 to 2019
Harry Elam to Step Down as Occidental College President at the End of the Academic Year
Harry J. Elam Jr. became the sixteenth president of Occidental College in Los Angeles on July 1, 2020. Dr. Elam recently announced in a message to new students that he would be stepping down from his post at the end of the academic year due to a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
The First Black Dean of the Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia
Said Ibrahim has been serving as senior vice president of the medicine service line at Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider. He also serves as chair of the department of medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, and the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University. He will become dean on December 1.
A Quartet of Black Scholars in New Faculty Positions
Taking on new duties are Ruth L. Okediji at Harvard University, Milton S.F. Curry at Cornell University, Felicia McGhee at Florida A&M University, and Summer Perry at Columbus State University in Georgia.
The Next Leader of the School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago
Nadya Mason has been serving as the Rosalyn S. Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has also served as the director of the University of Illinois' Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
In Memoriam: Charles J. Ogletree Jr. 1952-2023
Charles Ogletree was the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and the founding executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School. He taught at the law school for 36 years.
Study Finds Huge Racial Disparity in Killings by Off-Duty Police Officers
A new study led by Emmanuella Ngozi Asabor, an MD/Ph.D. candidate at Yale University found that Black men are the most common victims of killings committed by off-duty police officers in the U.S. Researchers found that many incidences occurred while off-duty officers were performing side jobs as security officers, and that these officers often obscured information about their involvement in situations that turned deadly.
Kimberly Rogers Appointed the Fifteenth President of Contra Costa College in California
Before being named acting president of the college in 2022, Dr. Rogers was vice president for instruction. Earlier in her career, she held academic appointments at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Université de Haute-Alsace in France.
Eric Turner Will Be the First Black President of Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts
Turner was named Lasell’s provost in June 2020 after serving as the institution’s vice president of graduate and professional studies. Earlier in his career, he was a senior vice president at State Street Corporation, a financial services firm based in Boston.
Highly Selective Colleges Become Even More Selective
In an era when college enrollments are generally down, a large number of selective educational institutions recorded a record number of applications, and therefore a record low admissions rate. But very few of them revealed data on the percentage of Blacks in their admitted classes.
In Memoriam: Randall Robinson, 1941-2023
Randall Robinson was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and educator. He was one of America's leading voices in opposition to South African apartheid. He taught at Pennsylvania State University from 2008 to 2016.
Four African American Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to New Faculty Positions
Taking on new roles are LaQuandra S. Nesbitt at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jarvis Givens at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Nicole B. Burwell at North Carolina A&T State University, and Anthony Greene at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
Research Published in the Journal of the National Medical Association Is Largely Ignored
The National Medical Association was established in 1895 because physicians of color were not permitted to be members of the American Medical Association. Today, the National Medical Association has 30,000 members. A recent study finds that articles published in the association's medical journal are almost never cited in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Ruth Simmons to Take on New Role as Senior Adviser to the President of Harvard University
Ruth Simmons, who recently stepped down as president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, will advise the president of Harvard on efforts to support the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Her work will focus on engaging in meaningful and enduring partnerships with the nation’s HBCUs.
Harvard University Launches Major Effort to Help HBCUs Digitize Their Library Collections
The HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library announced a four-year, $6 million project to develop strategies and methods for HBCU libraries and archives to scale up the processing and digitization of their collections.
Garry W. Jenkins Will Be the First Black President of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine
Since 2016, Jenkins has been dean and the William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Prior to joining the Minnesota Law School Jenkins was a professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law for 12 years, including eight years as associate dean for academic affairs.
Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack
Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.
Danielle Holley Will Be the Twentieth President of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts
In 2014, President-elect Holley was named dean and a professor of law at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Previously she was associate dean and a professor of law at the University of South Carolina Law School. Earlier in her career, she taught at the Hofstra University School of Law in New York.
Harvard University’s Tiya Miles Wins Another Award for Her Book Ashley’s Sack
Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History and the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, recently was awarded the 2022 Cundill History Prize by McGill University in Montreal. The $75,000 prize is given for a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.
Harvard-Led Study Finds Racial Disparities in Opioid Relief for Dying Cancer Patients
In a study of 318,549 Medicare patients over the age of 65, researchers found that Black patients were 4.3 percentage points less likely to receive any opioid and 3.2 percentage points less likely to receive long-acting opioids near the end of life than White patients. Researchers also found that when Black patients received opioids, they tended to receive lower doses.
Vaughn Booker Honored by the Council of Graduate Schools for His Book on Black Jazz Musicians
The Arlt Award from the Council of Graduate Schools recognizes a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Booker is the 52nd winner of the award.
The University Consortium on Afro-Latin American Studies Will Examine Western Hemisphere Slavery
Of the 10.7 million Africans who survived the Middle Passage, 4.9 million were taken to Brazil, another 1 million arrived in Jamaica, and millions more were taken to various islands in the Caribbean. A new collaboration between Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh and four universities in Latin America will study slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Claudine Gay Appointed the Thirtieth President of Harvard University
When she takes office on July 1, Claudine Gay will be the first African American to lead the university since its founding nearly 400 years ago. Since 2018, Dr. Gay has served as the Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She first joined the Harvard faculty in 2006.
John King Appointed the Fifteenth Chancellor of the State University of New York
A former secretary of the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration, John King has been serving since 2017 as the president of The Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students in early childhood, K-12 education, and higher education.
Two African American Men Who Have Been Appointed to Distinguished Faculty Positions
Shawn Ginwright has been named professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Grant Warner will serve as the inaugural Bank of America Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Harvard University’s Makeda Best Created the Photography Catalogue of the Year
Makeda Best, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, recently received the prestigious Photography Catalogue of the Year award at the 2022 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards. Dr. Best was honored for her 2021 publication Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography Since 1970.
African Americans and Rhodes Scholarships
Typically the Rhodes Trust does not reveal the race or ethnicity of scholarship winners. Of this year's 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States, it appears that four are African Americans.
In Memoriam: Frank Sidney Jones, 1928-2022
In 1968, Frank Sidney Jones was named executive director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1971 he was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and became the first African American to achieve tenure at MIT.
Jonathan Lee Walton Appointed the Eighth President of the Princeton Theological Seminary
Dr. Walton has been serving as dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also holds the Presidential Chair of Religion and Society at the divinity school and is dean of Wait Chapel on campus. Before coming to Wake Forest in 2020, Dr. Walton was the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the University’s Memorial Church at Harvard University.
Three African American Men Who Have Been Appointed to New Faculty Positions
Thomas W. Mitchell has joined the faculty at the Boston College Law School. Jarvis Givens has been promoted to associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and Walter T. Tillman was named an associate professor of education at Hampton University in Virgina.
Anita Allen Honored by the Hastings Center for Her Work in Bioethics
Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Allen was recognized for outstanding contributions to law and philosophy and to their practical applications in medicine, science, and public affairs.
Thomas Jinnings: The First Black Student at Harvard?
Who was the first African American student at Harvard? This question is not as easy to answer as one might think – and, with the recent discovery of a name buried in an 1841 Harvard catalogue, a new possible answer has come to light.
