Af-Am Gets Boost in Summers' Last Year

Lawrence H. Summers, who began his presidency by tangling publicly with black studies scholar Cornel R. West ’74, is set to end his five-year term by approving tenure appointments for at least four Faculty members in the African and African-American Studies Department.

West was among the first of six professors from that department who left Harvard during the Summers years.

But now, with the Summers presidency nearing a close, the department is on the verge of making up those losses.

In addition to the four professors from top institutions who have already accepted full professorships here this year, two more are mulling offers to join Harvard.

“Ironically Larry’s presidency starts with his combat with Cornel West and it might end with him recruiting more black people in a shorter period of time than any president in history,” said outgoing Af-Am chair Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. “I think that [Dean of the Faculty William C.] Kirby and Summers will be remembered in part for their support for this initiative.”

These tenure offers made by Gates, who is currently on sick leave, produced a string of acceptances in the last year.

“Even under [former University President Neil L.] Rudenstine, we didn’t hire five black people in two months,” Gates said.

A new recruit to the Government department will also likely offer classes under Af-Am.

The professors specialize in a range of fields from music to literature, and from religion to social conflict.

COAST TO COAST

Trading sunny weather at University of California, Los Angeles for a windswept route to William James Hall, James Sidanius began his job as professor of psychology and African American studies this semester. He specializes in inter-group conflict and social dominance theory.

Also hailing from the Golden State Jacob K. Olupona will have a joint appointment in the Af-Am department and Harvard Divinity School.

“It’s an exciting time to study religion as it relates to Africa,” said Olupona, professor at University of California, Davis, who specializes in African religion. “Across the whole world, religion has become so central to society, to values, and it’s important for Africa to be engaged in the conversation.”

“I’m excited about coming back home,” said Olupona, who received his Ph.D from Boston University.

And the turmoil at Harvard surrounding the Summers’ resignation won’t dim Olupona’s homecoming.

“The institution is greater than the individual,” said Olupona. “The president will come and go, the institution will stay forever, and as individuals, we will make our contributions and go.”

He said he will contribute by sensitizing and attracting students to African studies.

GLOBE-TROTTING

Biodun Jeyifo may have to commute a bit further than the others to assume his new position as Af-Am professor.

The professor of English from Cornell University is currently in Ibadan, Nigeria, researching the literary and cultural effects of globalization in West Africa.

This fall, Jeyifo, who was a visiting professor at Harvard from 1998 to 2000, will rejoin what he dubs a “community of many smart and progressive scholars” that will strive to “make the academy a part of the worldwide movement for a just and sustainable future for all of the world’s peoples.”

He hopes to offer Harvard students an interdisciplinary look at the “diverse and heterodox intellectual traditions of Western and non-Western Marxism,” Jeyifo wrote in an e-mail.

EXODUS

The influx of new faculty will rejuvenate a department that has seen an outflow of professors for the last several years.

Former Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 departed for Princeton University in 2002 after a much-publicized tiff with Summers. Joining West at Princeton was former Carswell Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.

The year 2004 then became a particularly draining one for the Af-Am department.

After Summers denied her tenure, former Associate Professor of Af-Am Studies Marcyliena Morgan accepted a tenured position at Stanford University, and her husband, former Tishman and Diker Professor of Sociology and Af-Am Studies Lawrence D. Bobo, went with her.

Then former Professor of Government and Af-Am Studies Michael C. Dawson returned to the University of Chicago, which he had left earlier for Harvard.

Following on their heels, former Assistant Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and Af-Am Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw is a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania with a view to a tenured offer for next year.

Holding down the fort, Gates remained at Harvard—even though Princeton had extended him an offer.

KEEPER OF THE GATES

As Gates prepares to step down as Af-Am chair this June, he has proved to be a valiant gatekeeper, steering the department through an almost threefold drop in concentrators.

Gates will remain a professor in the Af-Am and English departments. And this fall, rather than seeing his colleagues leave him for Princeton or Stanford, Gates, who will continue to head the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, welcomes new colleagues from those same two institutions.

Princeton and Stanford will cede Kofi Agawu and Claudine Gay, respectively, to Harvard.

Agawu, a scholar of European and West African music, will come to Harvard as a joint professor of music and Af-Am.

Turning down offers from Stanford, Berkeley, and Michigan, Gay, who decided to accept Harvard’s offer on Wednesday, will join the Government department—and she said she will likely have informal involvement in Af-Am.

The Af-Am department is still awaiting responses from two additional offers.

According to Gates, Harvard is competing with other top schools for Brent H. Edwards, who is now an associate professor of English at Rutgers University.

Harvard is also contending for the services of Saidiya V. Hartman, who is an associate professor of English at Berkeley, Gates said.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.