Duke nabs top English prof

Longtime Penn English Professor Houston Baker, the former head of the African-American Studies Program, announced last week that he would accept a position as a senior professor of English at Duke University. The move leaves the English Department without one of its most influential and well-respected faculty members. Baker, 56, was a visiting professor at Duke this year and taught a course on African-American autobiography. But when he left for North Carolina last August, neither he nor Penn knew that the move would be for good. "After we had surveyed the area, [Duke] seemed like a pretty good place," Baker said, adding that no single factor sealed his decision to remain in Raleigh. "One of the important things in the process is that Duke is a great university," Baker explained. According to a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Baker's main incentive for leaving was that Duke offered his wife Charlotte a sizeable package in the Women's Studies Department. Charlotte Baker previously taught adjunctly at Penn and worked as an administrator in the College of General Studies. The Chronicle also reported that Duke is actively recruiting Penn English Professor Maureen Quilligan, though Quilligan is still currently employed by Penn. Baker arrived at Penn in 1974 as a member of the English Department. That year, he was also named director of the African-American Studies Program -- a post he held for three years. Baker, who is also a published poet, has written several books during his tenure at Penn and also served as president of the Modern Language Association of America in 1992, the first African American in more than 100 years to do so. Additionally, he was the director of the University's Center for Study of Black Literature and Culture at the time of his departure. Indeed, during his 25-year tenure, Baker earned a reputation as one of the pre-eminent scholars in his field. "With Houston Baker's departure, we're losing an incredibly visible scholar in Afro-American literature, somebody who really shaped the field as it exists now across the country," English Department Chairperson Wendy Steiner said. While Baker is excited about his dramatic transition, he claimed he is still nostalgic about his time at Penn. "We have profited and benefited enormously from the quarter-century we've spent at the University of Pennsylvania," Baker said, adding that he certainly does not plan "to be a stranger." And, according to some of his former colleagues, the fond feelings are more than mutual. Steiner referred to Baker as a "really good friend" and called his departure "a pity," while Beavers said Baker "had the ability to be both a mentor and friend at the same time." The English Department is already bracing itself for Baker's loss, which some say might hurt the ranking of the department and the African-American Studies Program.