This fall Professor Michael Eric Dyson joins the University of Pennsylvania family as Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and African American Studies.
Professor Dyson, ordained Baptist minister, received his M.A. and PhD in Religion from Princeton University with a concentration in Ethics and Politics. He has been on the faculty at Brown University, the University of North Carolina and DePaul University. Professor Dyson is a scholar of extraordinary accomplishment and skills.
Professor Dyson's research reflects a multidisciplinary perspective that encompasses Religion, Race Relations, and African American Studies. While he is one of the most important and visible "public intellectuals" his publications reflect a dedication to the elevation of the academy.
Professor Dyson established himself as a scholarly cultural critic through his first book Reflecting Black. In this work Professor Dyson re-focuses the debates over black cultural production and its relationship to gender, class, race, culture and market relations in the post-industrial America.
He followed this powerful beginning with highly literate, engrossing, and deeply researched biographies of Malcolm X (Making Malcolm), Martin Luther King (I May Not Get There With You) and Tupac Shakur (Holler If You Hear Me), and two compelling collections of essays (Race Rules and Between God and Gangsta Rap). In addition to these books, he has published numerous academic papers and book chapters, numerous newspaper articles, book reviews, etc.
These scholarly projects provide the foundation for the unique public career of Professor Dyson. As a public intellectual, Professor Dyson has appeared on numerous television programs, such as Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Oprah; and has been featured on National Public Radio.
His writings have appeared in the leading newspapers and magazines in the country including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Vibe Magazine and Rolling Stone. He has also been featured in Time, U.S. News and World Report, The New Yorker, Essence, The Village Voice and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dyson is a weekly columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times and a weekly radio commentator for Tavis Smiley's National Public Radio program.
His journalism and public presentations are grounded in academic research. His engages the public as a scholar and he takes the life of the mind to the public in a way that is based on this scholarly foundation.
Professor Dyson will strengthen the intellectual core of the African-American Studies program, the Department of Religious Studies and the Penn community. The stronger is the core of the Afro-American Studies Program, the higher is the probability of ongoing success in highly visible interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research contributions in race relations, cultural studies, religious studies and the related fields of study.
Join me in welcoming Professor Michael Eric Dyson the distinguished religious studies scholar and race relations scholar of tremendous productivity and range, whose best days nonetheless lie ahead, and whose pre-existing affinities are very much consistent with the University's strengths and mission.
