Michael Eric Dyson: Leaves for Georgetown, forgets to tell anyone?

If you're surprised he's gone, don't worry: you weren't the only one.

It was news even to Tukufu Zuberi, director of the Center for Africana Studies. Diverse, a minority higher-ed magazine, claims that Zuberi first learned about it when a reporter called him up to ask about it.

Informed of the news, Zuberi admitted he doesn't talk to Dyson very much. (Apparently not.) Zuberi, who was instrumental in bringing Dyson to Penn, must have felt a little silly pulling up Dyson's website to confirm for himself: "Dyson is University Professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches Theology, English and African American Studies."

The bizarre story goes on. Dyson had splattered his pending Georgetown professorship on the cover of an advance copy of his new book, Know What I Mean?: Reflection on Hip Hop. That advance copy had been out there since mid-June at least, so even when some media outlets like Diverse were in the loop, Zuberi was still totally oblivious. Even the Georgetown faculty learned about their new colleague only after the decision was made to hire him, according to one professor. (Georgetown's official release came out only a couple of days ago, although Dyson said the move had been in the works for a while.)

Diverse reports that Dyson was supposed to teach a class here in the fall, although I don't see any mention of it on the online course roster anymore. In any event, if you were holding out for another class like 2003's "Western Religious Thinkers: Tupac Shakur" to fulfill that tricky Arts and Letters credit, you may want to start looking elsewhere.

EDIT: The Daily News chimes in this morning. Add departed sociology prof Elijah Anderson to the long list of people who were caught off guard by this.