Tag: Harvard University
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.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Four African American Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties
Taking on new duties are Valerie Giddings at North Carolina A&T State University, Collin Stultz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robin R. Davis at Virginia Union University in Richmond, and Giselle Armond Abron at the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine.
Report Finds That Remote Learning During the Pandemic May Widen Racial Gaps in Achievement
A new report finds that high-poverty schools both spent more weeks in remote instruction during the early pandemic and suffered large losses in achievement when they did so. Districts that remained largely in-person, however, lost relatively little ground.
Emery N. Brown Selected to Share the Gruber Neuroscience Prize
Awarded annually by the Gruber Foundation, the prize honors scientists for major discoveries that have advanced the understanding of the nervous system. The prize, which includes a $500,000 award, will be presented to Dr. Brown and his co-recipients on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Five Black Scholars Who Have Been Assigned to New Positions or Duties
The five Black scholars who have been assigned to new roles or duties are Antwan Jones at George Washington University, Kiron Skinner at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Marty Baylor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Bunmi Olatunji at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and James W. Mickens at Harvard University.
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
The Troubling Decline of Black Men in Academic Medicine
A new study led by Sophia C. Kamran, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, finds that over the past generation while female representation rose dramatically in U.S. medical schools, the number of Black men in academic medicine stagnated or decreased.
Rosephanye Powell Wins the Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award From Harvard University
Professor Powell teaches applied voice, art song literature and vocal pedagogy at Auburn University in Alabama. She also serves as the Women’s Chorus conductor and the Auburn University Gospel Choir’s co-conductor.
Harvard University Issues Extensive Report on Its Ties to Slavery
Harvard presidents and other leaders, as well as its faculty and staff, enslaved more than 70 individuals, some of whom labored on campus. Harvard is creating a $100 million endowment to help remedy past wrongs and the lingering effects of slavery on people of color.
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Honors Emery N. Brown
Emery N. Brown is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and the Warren M. Zapol Professor at Harvard Medical School.
New Scholarship Honors the First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Divinity School
A new scholarship at Yale Divinity School honors Rena Karefa-Smart, the first Black woman to graduate from the school. Dr. Karefa-Smart was also the first Black woman to earn a theology doctorate from Harvard Divinity School and the first female professor to earn tenure at the Howard University School of Divinity.
