AfAm rise sparks hunt for profs

Outgoing New York Mayor David Dinkins was appointed yesterday as a senior research scholar at Columbia University's newly created Institute for Research in African-American studies. His appointment is just the latest affirmation of the field's growing popularity in the ivory tower. "African-American studies is being more and more accepted as a legitimate field of study," the University's director of Afro-American studies John Roberts said. "It is on the move." With this has come a scramble to hire more African-American studies faculty members, at the expense of other universities. One of the most recent tremors in the academic world has been Harvard University's acquisition of Princeton University's race-relations and religion scholar Cornel West. West, author of the critically-acclaimed book, Race Matters, was lured to Harvard to serve in a joint appointment in Afro-American Studies and the Divinity School. Harvard, like many other schools, is looking for more professors to further the development of its African-American studies programs. Last year, the University lost two of its own to Harvard when Senior U.S. District Judge and Law School Professor Leon Higginbotham and his wife, Associate History Professor Evelyn Higginbotham, accepted jobs in Cambridge. Evelyn Higginbotham, who is now doing research at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina before assuming her Harvard post as a professor of African-American religious studies, said she did not consider Harvard's hiring tactics a "professor raid." "If you're trying to build a good department, you want to look for people who you think are good," she said. "They are trying to identify good people – in Cornel's case, extraordinary people – to attract students. "That was definitely the mandate that [Black Studies program director Henry Louis Gates] took upon himself when he came to Harvard," she added. Gates, who himself was a recruit from Duke University, has taken this mandate seriously, and is gleaning stars from the African-American studies firmament across the nation. "It's not like these schools are being raided," Evelyn Higginbotham was quick to point out. "These people are at the top of their profession." Harvard has voiced its intent to keep searching for new professors. Next on the list, sources say, is a new African-American history professor. Black professors at the University, whether experts in African-American studies or not, have received many offers from other universities. Sociology Professor Elijah Anderson said he has recently received offers from Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but has turned both down. Anderson said he sees the professor shifts as "not necessarily a black and white thing." "I think this is not peculiar," Anderson said. "People want to bring in people who can contribute something to their mission. This is what universities do when they want to add to their sparkle." And Roberts said the University is currently engaged in some overtures of its own. "There are a couple of searches going on that should bring new African-American studies professors into the University," Roberts said. While he would not discuss details, Roberts said the University is currently looking for an English professor and a history professor to add to the ranks of African American studies, and that there is a "pretty good chance" both will be filled within the year. "It's a good program here at this point in time," he said. "I think we could always use more professors."

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