Tag: Wellesley College
Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney Announces Retirement
In 2014, Dr. Berger-Sweeney became the first African American and first woman president of Trinity College since its founding in 1823. Over the past decade, the college has experienced growth in enrollment and graduation rates, hired more diverse faculty, and improved campus infrastructure.
Three Black Scholars Appointed to New Faculty Positions
Wunyabari Maloba was appointed to an endowed professorship at the University of Delaware. Phillis Isabella Sheppard was named faculty director of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University, and Ama Baafra Abeberese was promoted to associate professor of economics and granted tenure at Wellesley College.
In Memoriam: Miriam DeCosta-Willis, 1934-2021
Nearly, a decade after she was not allowed to enroll at what is now the University of Memphis because of the color of her skin, Dr. Decosta-Wilis was hired as the university's first Black faculty member. She also taught at Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Howard University in Washington, D.C., George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
A Trio of African Americans Are Retiring From High-Level Posts in the Academic World
Stepping down from their positions are Melissa Thomas-Hunt, professor of management and vice provost at Vanderbilt University, Andre Patillo, director of athletics at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and Filomina C. Steady, chair of Africana studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
African Americans Accepted Into the Class of 2023 at High-Ranking Colleges and Universities
Recently, most of the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities informed applicants if they had been accepted for admission into the Class of 2023. Some revealed the racial/ethnic breakdown of their admitted students.
Two African American College Leaders Honored With Notable Awards
Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley College in Massachusetts has received the 2018 Social Justice Award from Eastern Bank and Phoebe A. Haddon, chancellor at Rutgers University-Camden, has received the 2019 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools.
New Book Provides Insight Into the Influence of an 18th-Century Slave Ship Woodcut Engraving
The original wood engraving of a slave ship was created in 1788 by British abolitionists who intended to influence the legislators who regulated the slave trade. It was the first image to expose ordinary people to the barbarism of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Harvard University Acquires the Family Papers of Professor Patricia J. Williams
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has acquired the archives of the family of Patricia J. Williams, the James L. Dohr Professor at the Columbia University School of Law. The archives include 65 boxes of family documents going back more than a century.
Alvia Wardlaw Honored by the Association of African American Museums
Alvia Wardlaw is a professor of art history and director and curator of the University Museum at Texas Southern University in Houston. In 1996, she became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in history at the University of Texas at Austin.
In Memoriam: William R. Scott, 1940-2017
William R. Scott was a professor emeritus of history at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at Lehigh University as a full professor in 1992 and served as the first director of the university's African American studies program.
Wellesley College Offers a New Minor Degree Program in Comparative Race and Ethnicity
The new minor at the highly rated women's college, where Blacks make up 5 percent of the student body, will allow students to create a structured yet individualized plan of study from interdisciplinary courses that offer rigorous and complementary approaches to understanding race and ethnicity.
MIT Debuts Excellence Through Adversity Award to Honor Robbin Chapman of Wellesley College
Robbin Chapman is the former manager of diversity recruiting at the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT and also served as the inaugural assistant associate provost for faculty equity at the university. She joined the administration of Wellesley College in suburban Boston in 2011.
Paula Johnson Will Be the First African American President of Wellesley College
Dr. Johnson is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. She is the founder and executive director of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Steven Nelson to Lead the African Studies Center at UCLA
Dr. Nelson is a professor of African and African American art and architectural history at the university. Professor Nelson is currently working on books about the Underground Railroad and the history of the city of Dakar.
In Memoriam: Diane Mae Stewart Pollard, 1944-2015
After serving on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Professor Pollard joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1976. She taught there for more than 30 years.
Wellesley College to Upgrade Its Black Student Center
Wellesley College in Massachusetts, announced plans to enhance and add to existing multicultural centers on campus including Harambee House that has served as a center for women students of African descent since 1970.
Educational Television for Preschoolers Shown to Benefit Young Blacks
A new study authored by scholars at Wellesley College and the University of Maryland found that children who watched Sesame Street when it was first broadcast nearly a half century ago, did better in school as they got older.
Alecia A. DeCoudreaux Is Stepping Down as President of Mills College in June 2016
Alecia A. DeCoudreaux, president of Mills College in Oakland, California, has announced that she will step down in June 2016. She became president of the women's college on July 1, 2011 after a long career in the legal department of Eli Lilly and Company.
University of Nebraska Establishes the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of People of Color
The commission has been established to advise the chancellor on issues pertaining to the specific concerns of faculty, staff, and students who are members of underrepresented minority groups on campus.
Three Young Women From Africa Are MasterCard Foundation Scholars at Wellesley College
Three young women from Africa make up the second cohort of MasterCard Foundation Scholars at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. They are among the 114 women from foreign nations in Wellesley's first-year class.
Wellesley College Philosopher and Poet Stepping Down After 41 Years
Ifeanyi Menkiti, a native of Nigeria, earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University, where philosopher John Rawls supervised his dissertation. Dr. Menkiti is the author of four collections of poetry.
Wellesley College Student Conducts Oral History Project of Black Alumnae From the 1950s
Nora Mishanec, a senior majoring in international affairs at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, has conducted an oral history project relating the stories of Black women at Wellesley in the 1950s.
Major Program to Educate the Next Generation of African Leaders Is Underway
The first students in the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program have completed their first semesters at U.S. colleges and universities. Over the next decade 15,000 students, many from Africa, will participate.
In Memoriam: Martin Gardiner Bernal, 1937-2013
Professor Bernal and Professor Mary Lefkowitz of Wellesley College engaged in a scholarly give and take in the pages of JBHE in the mid-1990s on Dr. Bernal's thesis that Africans had a major influence on Greek thought and culture.
Honors for Wellesley College Alumna Callie Crossley
She will receive one of the Alumnae Achievement Awards from Wellesley College and the George W. Coleman Award from the Ford Hall Forum for her efforts to promote free speech.
MasterCard Foundation Makes a Major Commitment to the Education of Africans
Among the partnering institutions in the United States are Arizona State University, Michigan State University, Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, Duke University and Wellesley College.
Layli Maparyan Named Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women
The Spelman College graduate currently serves as an associate professor of women's studies and African American studies at Georgia State University.
