On May 15, the University nabbed one of the nation's most well-known and well-respected African-American scholars.
Michael Eric Dyson will join Penn's ranks as an Afro-American and Religious Studies professor. With specialties ranging from biographical histories to rap music, Dyson comes to the University from Chicago's DePaul University. He becomes the latest in the recent movement of black scholars among America's top universities.
We look forward to Dyson's arrival on campus, as we are certain that he will contribute invaluably to the Relgious Studies Department, the African-American Studies program and the intellectual life of the University.
Recently, the University has attracted nationally and internationally acclaimed Afro-American professors and scholars:
Mary Frances Berry, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Thought and a professor of History. Berry is also the author of several books, and a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a board on which she has served for over twenty years.
English professor Michael Awkward brings to the program specialties in Afro-American literary, cultural, and gender studies.
History professor Robert Engs investigates not only African-American history, but also the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the American South.
Afro-American Studies at Penn are becoming recognized as an important part of the College's many programs. While Harvard's epitomized Afro-American Studies Department was once hailed, the loss of faculty members Anthony Appiah and Cornel West to Princeton University have left Harvard's Department somewhat deflated. Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Harvard's Afro-American Studies Chair is also considering a move to Princeton. Penn, however, is gaining some of the most recognized Afro-American scholars.
The additions to the program can only be beneficial to the Afro-American Studies program and the Penn community as a whole. Penn's formerly struggling Political Science Department was infinitely boosted by the grasp of several notables, particularly John DiIulio from Princeton University and Roger Smith from Yale, to become a thriving department at Penn.
If history is to be a guide, the recent attraction and hire of influential and experienced Afro-American Studies scholars will bring vitality and success to the program and benefit the entire University community.
