Tag: Yale University
Two Black Scholars Selected for Endowed Professorships at Ivy League Universities
The two Black scholars appointed to endowed faculty positions at Ivy League schools are Vaughn Booker at the University of Pennsylvania and Dorceta Taylor at Yale University.
Lester Agyei McCorn Named President of Paine College in Georgia
"I am honored to accept the presidency of Paine College," said Dr. McCorn. "My acceptance originates from a place of deep respect and admiration for the legacy and significance of this historic institution. Connecting Paine College's historic past with a strategic vision for the future will catapult this institution into unparalleled prominence in American higher education."
Barbara Savage Receives Book Award for Her Recent Biography of Merze Tate
The Before Columbus Foundation has honored Barbara Savage, professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania, with their 2024 American Book Award for her book, Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar.
Edmund W. Gordon Honored for Lifetime Achievement in Pre-K-12 Education
Dr. Gordon's career in education spans nearly seven decades, and includes roles in both public service and academia. He currently serves as a professor emeritus at both Columbia University and Yale University.
Higher Education Gifts or Grants 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.
Jonathan Holloway to Step Down as President of Rutgers University
Rutgers University's first Black president, Jonathan Holloway, has announced his intent to step down at the conclusion of this academic year. While the university has experience significant enrollment and fundraising growth, Dr. Holloway has faced controversy around his response to pro-Palestine protests on campus.
Exposure to a Large Local Police Force Associated With Lower Economic Mobility for Black Men
A new study from scholars at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University has found exposure to a large local police force during adolescence and young adulthood is associated with increases in the racial economic mobility gap between Black and White American men.
Three Black Authors Named Finalists for Yale’s 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize
The finalists are Kerri Greenidge, professor at Tufts University; Sarah Johnson, professor at the University of California, San Diego; and Emily Owens, professor at Brown University.
New Faculty Positions for Four African American Scholars
The appointments are Charles Bell at Illinois State University, Danielle Wood at MIT, Robert Gooding-Williams at Yale, and Maurice Dawson Jr. at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
NAACP Awards Prestigious Spingarn Medal to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The NAACP's Springarn Medal is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious prizes recognizing outstanding achievements by Black Americans. Dr. Gates, professor at Harvard University, is the 109th recipient of the prize since its inception in 1915.
Yale Study Finds Childhood School Segregation Leads to Cognitive Disparities in Older Black Adults
When examining the connection between a variety of negative early-life experiences and cognitive function in older adulthood for Black seniors, attending a segregated school was found to have the largest effect on cognitive impairment compared to other childhood difficulties.
African Literature and Culture Society Honors Duriel Harris for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry
Dr. Harris has served as a professor of poetry and poetics at Illinois State University for the past 15 years. Her teaching and academic interests include poetry writing, poetics, and African American literature.
Five Black Professors Selected for New Faculty Positions
Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new faculty positions at universities throughout the United States. If you have news for our appointments section, please email the information to contact@jbhe.com.
Mark Brown to Be the First Alumnus to Serve as President of Tuskegee University in Alabama
On July 1, Dr. Mark Brown will assume the presidency of his undergraduate alma mater, Tuskegee University in Alabama, making him the first alumnus to serve in the position. He currently serves as the inaugural president and CEO of the Student Freedom Initiative.
Daphne Lamothe Promoted to Provost of Smith College in Massachusetts
Dr. Lamothe has taught Africana studies, women's and gender studies, and American studies at Smith College for two decades. She will assume the college's chief academic position on July 1.
Tina Post Wins National Book Circle Award for Book on Black American Identity and Expression
Dr. Post has been on the faculty at the University of Chicago for the past six years, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses in the university's department of English language and literature.
Four African Americans Appointed to University Administrative Positions
The appointments are Donald R. Pearsall at Alabama A&M University, Padonda Webb at North Carolina A&T State University, Michael Scales at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dawn Leaks Ragsdale at Yale University.
Yale University Commits $10 million Toward HBCU Partnerships
Yale University issued a formal apology three weeks ago regarding its historical ties to slavery. In response, the university has pledged $10 million towards an initiative that aims to expand collaboration with historically Black colleges and universities.
Yale Issues Formal Apology After Research Finds Historic Ties to Slavery
"Today, on behalf of Yale University, we recognize our university’s historical role in and associations with slavery, as well as the labor, the experiences, and the contributions of enslaved people to our university’s history, and we apologize for the ways that Yale’s leaders, over the course of our early history, participated in slavery," says Yale University President Peter Salovey, and Josh Bekenstein, senior trustee of the Yale Corporation.
Black Film Project and Film Studies Fellowships Established at Harvard University
Henry Louis Gates Jr., professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, will direct the newly established Black Film Project, an initiative aiming to support independent films focusing on Black history and culture.
Yale Library Acquires Digital Collection of Langston Hughes Papers
In a recent December upload, the Yale University Library added a collection of papers from Black poet Langston Hughes to the school's online archive. The collection contains correspondence between Hughes and other authors and civil rights activists of his time.
In Memoriam: Julie Saville, 1947-2023
Dr. Saville was hired to the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1994, joining the founding generation of scholars of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She was a scholar of slavery, emancipation, and plantation societies in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
In Memoriam: Willie Ruff, 1931-2023
Professor Ruff held bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Yale University. He joined the faculty at Yale in 1971 and taught there until his retirement in 2017.
A Group of Black Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Chairs
The three Black scholars who have been appointed to named professorships are Karen Flynn at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ruth Blake at Yale University, and Baron Kelly at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
University of Chicago’s Tina Post Wins Best Book Prize
Tina Post, an assistant professor of English at the University of Chicago, recently received the Best Book Prize from the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present.
Yale University Scholar Wins Early Career Physics Award
Charles D. Brown II, an assistant professor of physics at Yale University, has been selected as the winner the Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence from the American Institute of Physics and the National Society of Black Physicists.
Deborah Dyett Desir Is the New President of the American College of Rheumatology
Dr. Desir has more than three decades of experience in clinical medicine. In 1993, she started a rheumatology private practice in Hamden, Connecticut. In 2019, Dr. Desir joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty.
Government Programs to Attract Physicians to Underserved Areas Have Not Worked
A federal program created to attract physicians to medically underserved areas of the United States has not achieved this intended effect or reduced mortality rates in these regions, a new Yale study finds.
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.
Yale Study Finds Huge Racial Disparity in Death Rates Due to Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter
The study found that on average, there were 202.70 deaths per 1 million White people each year due to exposure to high levels of fine particulate matter. But, there were 279.24 deaths per 1 million Hispanic people, and 905.68 deaths per 1 million Black people each year.
Study Finds Blacks Are More Likely Than Whites to Be Jumped in the Emergency Room Queue
A new study by researchers at Yale University finds that nearly one third of emergency room patients are jumped in line, with those from marginalized groups — including lower-income patients, non-white patients, and non-English speakers — more likely to be cut by others.
In Memoriam: Evelyn Boyd Granville, 1924-2023
After serving on the faculty at Fisk University in Nashville, in 1956 Dr. Granville was hired by IBM Corporation and was assigned to work on a contract for NASA. Dr. Granville wrote programs to track orbital trajectories and calculations to ensure the safe re-entry of space vehicles into the atmosphere. She later taught at California State University and the University of Texas at Tyler.
Yale University Study Examines the Racially Disparate Impact of Tax Deed Foreclosures
The research looks at how widespread tax deed foreclosures are and what effect they have on communities. Author Cameron LaPoint found that property tax foreclosure accelerates gentrification and contributes to the racial wealth gap by forcing out nonwhite homeowners and clearing the way for high-end property development.
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.
Racial Inequality and the Staggering Toll on Life Expectancy
A new study led by researchers at Yale University reveals a staggering disparity in life expectancy between Black Americans and their White counterparts. The results show that there were 1.63 million excess deaths in the Black population compared with White Americans in the 1999-2020 period, representing more than 80 million excess years of potential life lost.
Yale University Awards Degrees to Two of its First Students
James W. C. Pennington (1808-1870) and Alexander Crummell (1819-1898) studied at Yale from 1834 to 1837 and 1840 to 1841, respectively. Because they were Black, however, the university did not allow them to register formally for classes or matriculate for a degree. They could not participate in classroom discussions or access library resources.
