The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research
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9060558_COVER.qxd:Layout 1 7/24/09 9:43 AM Page 3 Harvard University Annual Report 2009 The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research DBI 9060558_COVER.qxd:Layout 1 7/24/09 9:43 AM Page 4 Understanding our history, as Americans and as African Americans, is essential to re-imagining the future of our society. How black people endured and thrived, how they created a most compelling culture that is uniquely American, how they helped write the story, both figuratively and literally, of this great country, is one of the most stirring sagas of the modern era. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 9060558_01-29.qxd:9060558.p 8/3/09 4:23 PM Page 1 Annual Report 2009 W. E. B. Du Bois Institute Harvard University 104 Mount Auburn Street, 3R for African and African American Research Cambridge MA 02138 617.495.8508 Phone 617.495.8511 Fax http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu 9060558_01-29.qxd:9060558.p 8/3/09 4:23 PM Page 2 About the Institute Institute’s Supporters The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute is the nation’s Realizing our dream of a permanent home in oldest research center dedicated to the study of the Harvard Square for the Du Bois Institute would history, culture, and social institutions of Africans not have been possible without the encourage- and African Americans. Named after the first ment and support of former presidents African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard Derek Bok, Neil L. Rudenstine, and Lawrence H. University, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Summers; Provost Steven E. Hyman; former (1895), the Institute was established in May 1975 to deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences create fellowships that would “facilitate the writing Henry Rosovsky, Jeremy Knowles, and William of doctoral dissertations in areas related to C. Kirby; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Afro-American Studies.” Today, the Institute awards Sciences Michael D. Smith; Associate Dean for up to twenty fellowships annually to scholars at Faculty Development Laura Gordon Fisher; various stages of their careers in the fields of African former Divisional Dean for Social Sciences and African American studies, broadly defined David Cutler; and Assistant Dean for Academic to cover the expanse of the African Diaspora. The Affairs Rebecca E. F. Wassarman. Du Bois Institute’s research projects and visiting fellows form the vital nucleus around which revolve Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a stimulating array of lecture series, art exhibitions, Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African readings, conferences, and archival and publication and African American Research projects. page 1: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) Courtesy of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Pennsylvania Press 2 9060558_01-29.qxd:9060558.p 8/3/09 4:23 PM Page 3 Executive Faculty National Committee Advisory Board Advisory Board Emmanuel Akyeampong Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Chair Glenn H. Hutchins, Chair Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Emmanuel K. Akyeampong Deborah Tanner Abell Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Suzanne Preston Blier Bennett Ashley William Julius Wilson Scott Brewer Peggy Cooper Cafritz James I. Cash, Jr. Gaston Caperton S. Allen Counter Richard D. Cohen Felton James Earls Ethelbert Cooper David Evans Norman Epstein Peter J. Gomes Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Lani Guinier R. Brandon Fradd Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Richard Gilder Linda Hill Lewis P. Jones III Jennifer L. Hochschild William Lewis Randall L. Kennedy Robert McG. Lilley Martin L. Kilson, Jr. Joanna Lipper Florence C. Ladd Mark C. Mamolen Michèle Lamont Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Henry W. McGee III Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. Raymond McGuire Jacob K. Olupona Rory Millson Orlando Patterson Clare Muñana Alvin F. Poussaint Donald E. and Susan Newhouse Deborah Prothrow-Stith Peter Norton Robert J. Sampson Adebayo Ogunlesi David A. Thomas E. Stanley O’Neal David B. Wilkins Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Preston N. Williams Nicole Parent Charles Vert Willie Frank H. and Geryl T. Pearl William Julius Wilson Richard L. Plepler Andrew Ramroop Steve Rattner Lynda Resnick Danny Rimer Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Daryl Roth George T. Wein Davis Weinstock National Advisory Board Chair Glenn H. Hutchins and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 3 9060558_01-29.qxd:9060558.p 8/3/09 4:23 PM Page 4 Letter from the Director The Du Bois Institute has become the world’s top lecture series—the W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures, the research center dedicated to the study of the history, Nathan I. Huggins Lectures, the Alain LeRoy Locke culture, and social institutions of persons of African Lectures, and the McMillan-Stewart Lectures— descent in the United States, Latin America, Europe, enable us each year to bring a stellar roster of scholars and on the African continent. Located in our to Harvard for a three-day series of lectures, which beautiful space in the heart of Harvard Square, where are then published as a book. This year’s Du Bois our research projects, fellows, and staff are housed, Lectures found Michael Eric Dyson of Georgetown the Institute is a hub of vibrant intellectual activity University meditating on “Obama and the Presidential both here at Harvard and throughout the world. Election,” Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia speaking I am delighted to say that, in the eighteen years about “Decolonization: Beyond Settlers and Natives,” since I arrived at Harvard, I cannot recall a time Joseph Miller of the University of Virginia discussing when the Institute was in fuller flower. The Du Bois “African and World History,” Melissa Harris-Lacewell Institute, in short, has had a glorious year. And I am of Princeton considering “Of the Meaning of Progress: also delighted to tell you that you can see webcasts of Measuring Black Citizenship,” and Yale’s Robert many of our events from this past year on our newly B. Stepto “Reading the Classics in the Age of Obama.” designed website (http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu). For the Huggins Lectures, we hosted the historians As the premier research institute in African and Paul Finkelman on “The Supreme Court and the African American studies, we have the obligation— Peculiar Institution: Marshall, Story, Taney, and the and the privilege—to support and present the very Defense of Slavery,” and Neil Foley on “Jim Crow best scholarship being produced in our field. Our Good Neighbors: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown 4 9060558_01-29.qxd:9060558.p 8/3/09 4:23 PM Page 5 Solidarity.” The Locke Lectures explore art and In August of last year, we were pleased to host culture, and this year featured Anthony Davis on many of you at our summer event at the Old “Deconstructing Opera, Creating Opera in a Post- Whaling Church on Martha’s Vineyard, a symposium Colonial World,” Deborah Willis on “Concepts entitled “Race [Still] Matters,” moderated by of Beauty,” and David Adjaye on his groundbreaking Charlayne Hunter-Gault and featuring some of our architectural work. In May, David’s firm was sharpest thinkers on race, culture, and politics awarded the commission to design the Smithsonian in the U.S.: Sara Aviel, a Massachusetts Delegate to National Museum of African American History the Democratic National Convention, Lawrence D. and Culture, scheduled to open on the National Mall Bobo of Harvard University, Melissa Harris-Lacewell near the Washington Monument in 2015. of Princeton University, Lawrence Harrison of the We have an agreement with Harvard University Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Rutgers Press to publish book versions of the Du Bois University historian Deborah Gray White. This year’s and Huggins Lectures and with Basic Civitas Books event, on August 20, certainly matched last year’s for the Locke Lectures. In 2008, Harvard University in star power and intensity. Charlayne Hunter-Gault Press published the great historian George M. and Professors Bobo and Harris-Lacewell were Frederickson’s final book, Big Enough to Be with us again, as were Linda Darling-Hammond of Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race, Stanford, Charles M. Blow of the New York Times, and shortly before his death. This past winter they Claude M. Steele, newly appointed Provost of published Leon F. Litwack’s How Free is Free?: The Columbia University, to discuss “Achieving Equality Long Death of Jim Crow. In the fall, Basic Civitas in the Age of Obama.” published the book version of Walter Mosley’s Locke In February, we hosted a stellar panel at the JFK, Lectures, The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Jr. Forum at the Kennedy School of Government’s Investigations of Socrates Fortlow. This year will see Institute of Politics (home last year to the symposium Harvard University Press’s publication of Richard on HBO’s “The Wire” and always one of our favorite Alba’s Blurring the Color Line: The New Chance for a More venues) to discuss “Looking for Lincoln: In His Integrated America, and Michael Eric Dyson’s Full Time and Ours.” Joining me for this “Conversation of the Hope That the Present Has Brought Us: Obama and on Abraham Lincoln” were some of the best Lincoln America. scholars in the country: President Drew Gilpin Our numerous special events were, indeed, Faust of Harvard University; David W. Blight, quite special. Although it is quieter in the summer Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study than during the academic year, the Institute certainly of Slavery, Race, and Abolition at Yale University; doesn’t sleep when school is out. In July 2008, Adam Gopnik, New Yorker writer and author of Angels we hosted the NEH Summer Institute, a biennial & Ages: How Lincoln and Darwin Invented the Mind of the course directed by Waldo Martin of University Modern World; Allen C.