Harvard University Annual Report 2013 W. E. B. Du Bois Institute Harvard University W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research Understanding our history, as Americans and as African Americans, is essential to re-imagining the future of our country. How black people endured and thrived, how they created a universal culture that is uniquely American, how they helped write the story of this great nation, is one of the most stirring sagas of the modern era. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University Annual Report 2013 Harvard University W. E. B. Du Bois Institute 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 Institute’s Supporters About the Institute The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute is the nation’s American Research is fortunate to have the support of oldest research center dedicated to the study of Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, the history and culture of Africans and African Provost Alan M. Garber, Dean of the Faculty of Arts Americans. Named after the first African American and Sciences Michael D. Smith, Associate Dean for to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Administration for Social Sciences Beverly Beatty, and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1895), the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development Laura Institute was established in May 1975 to create Gordon Fisher. What we are able to accomplish at fellowships that would “facilitate the writing of the Du Bois Institute would not be possible without doctoral dissertations in areas related to Afro- their generosity and engagement. American Studies.” Today, the Institute awards up to twenty fellowships annually to scholars at various stages of their careers in the fields of African and African American Studies, and across the African Diaspora. The Du Bois Institute’s research projects and visiting fellows form the vital nucleus around which revolve a stimulating array of lecture series, art exhibitions, readings, conferences, and archival and publication projects. page 1: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) Courtesy of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Pennsylvania Press. 2 Executive Committee Lawrence D. Bobo Caroline Elkins Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham William Julius Wilson Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Lawrence D. Bobo. Photo: Bruce Guthrie William Julius Wilson. Caroline Elkins. 3 National Advisory Board Glenn H. Hutchins, Chair Lynda Resnick Debra Tanner Abell Danny Rimer Bennett Ashley Manizeh Rimer Carol Biondi Daniel Rose Frank Biondi Daryl Roth Peggy Cooper Cafritz David Roux Gaston Caperton Douglas E. Schoen Kenneth I. Chenault Larry E. Thompson Richard D. Cohen George T. Wein Ethelbert Cooper Davis Weinstock Norman Epstein Candace King Weir Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Linden Havemeyer Wise R. Brandon Fradd Nancy Garvey Richard Gilder Jeremy Henderson Ben Horowitz Lewis P. Jones III Freada Kapor Klein Mitch Kapor Robert McG. Lilley Joanna Lipper Michael Lynton Kay M. Madati Mark C. Mamolen James Manyika Catherine C. Marron Donald B. Marron Henry McGee Glenn H. Hutchins. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell Celia McGee Raymond J. McGuire Rory Millson Clare Muñana Donald E. Newhouse Susan Newhouse Peter Norton E. Stanley O’Neal Adebayo Ogunlesi Jennifer Oppenheimer Nicole Parent Geryl T. Pearl Richard L. Plepler Andrew Ramroop Steven Rattner Ethelbert Cooper. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell 4 Letter from the Director Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with Richard D. Cohen at the unveiling of his portrait by Yuqi Wang at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. Photo: Bruce Guthrie As we look toward a year of exciting growth and trans- was first brought to light 25 years ago by esteemed formation for the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, as it and sociologist and member of the Du Bois Institute our other research institutes, archives, art galleries, and Executive Committee, William Julius Wilson, the factors research projects become part of and housed in the contributing to this phenomenon as well as the ongo- new Hutchins Center for African and African Research ing ramifications of it were explored by Lawrence in October, it gives me great pleasure to review the Summers, President Emeritus of Harvard University; highlights of this past year with you. David Simon, creator of HBO’s The Wire and Treme; Our year of stellar events always begins even Constance L. Rice, the co-founder and co-director of before we return to Cambridge, during the last days of The Advancement Project; Roland G. Fryer, founder summer vacation, with the Hutchins Forum at the and principal investigator of the Education Innovation Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. Laboratory at Harvard; and Heather Boushey, Senior Hosted by Glenn H. Hutchins, the Chairman of the Economist at the Center for American Progress. Du Bois Institute’s National Advisory Board, this forum Renowned journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault moderat- convenes a panel of distinguished thinkers from the ed, as always, with expertise and flair. worlds of scholarship, politics, journalism, and the arts Throughout the year, we welcomed a roster to discuss a topic of pressing concern not only to the of distinguished guests to Harvard, with the support of African American community but also to all American numerous partners around the university and beyond, communities. In 2012, our panelists examined what especially Caroline Elkins, the Chair of the Committee happens “When Work Disappears: Unemployment on African Studies and a model of institutional collabo- and the African American Community.” A concept that ration and generosity. Of our various visitors during 5 Letter from the Director the past academic year, none was more distinguished leading historians, curators, and artists probed this than Civil Rights lion Andrew Young, who arrived endlessly fascinating subject for four days in Paris. With from Atlanta during a blizzard for a conversation and its own rich history as a destination for blacks from panel discussion, “A Freedom Fighter Looks Back: all corners of the Diaspora, Paris provided the perfect A Conversation with Ambassador Andrew Young on the setting for this conversation and collaboration. 20th Anniversary of King’s Letter from Birmingham Each year, our endowed lecture series bring several Jail.” The conversation was led by Professor Jonathan distinguished thinkers to Harvard to probe a single topic Rieder of Barnard College, and the panel featured over three days, resulting in conversations of breathtak- Diane McWhorter, Du Bois Institute Caperton Fellow; ing scope and nuance. This year, we added a new lecture Tommie Shelby, Professor of African and African series to our offerings. The Richard D. Cohen Lecture American Studies and of Philosophy; the Reverend in African and African American Art debuted this year, Jonathan Walton, Peter Gomes’s worthy successor as with the art historian Steven Nelson, a professor at Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and as Pusey UCLA who received his Ph.D. at Harvard, speaking on Minister in the Memorial Church; and Daniel S. “Mapping Blackness in African and Afro-Atlantic Art.” Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and This was the first in what promises to be an innovative Director of the Center for American Political Studies, and electrifying series—to be published in book which was a generous co-sponsor of this event. form by the Yale University Press—that will contribute We sponsored three large scholarly gatherings to our emerging status as the leading institution for during the spring semester, two at Harvard and one in the study of the art of the African Diaspora. Paris, all with generous co-sponsors too numerous Our W. E. B. Du Bois Lecture this year was delivered to mention here (details are in the following pages). by Ernest J. Wilson III, Walter Annenberg Chair in A group of eleven art historians participated in an open- Communication and Dean of the Annenberg School for to-the-public workshop on the forthcoming volume Communication and Journalism at the University of from Harvard University Press, The Image of the Black in Southern California. In “Exclusion and Inequality in African and Asian Art. Led by Du Bois Institute fellow Digital Societies: Theories, Evidence, and Strategy,” he David Bindman, who is the general editor of The Image made the strongest possible case that access to comput- of the Black in Western Art series with me, the workshop ers and digital media is no longer the divide that we provided a collaborative setting for the contributors must overcome; now it is access to positions of manage- to this innovative volume, a companion volume to the ment and ownership that create the new digital divide. landmark series exploring Western art. Our conference, The Nathan I. Huggins Lecture Series, which “Freedom Rising,” marked the sesquicentennial of the brings to Harvard the most eminent scholars of the Emancipation Proclamation and of African American history of the African Americas, this year brought service in the United States military, and examined this us an innovator and a radical. George Reid Andrews, anniversary from the perspective of both our national Distinguished Professor of History, UCIS Professor and global freedom movements. The event culminated and Chair of the Department of History at the University in a dramatic performance entitled “Roots of Liberty,” of Pittsburgh, was a tour de force, with his “Envisioning written by Edwidge Danticat and Patrick Sylvain, Afro-Latin America” introducing to many and and featuring the legendary Danny Glover as Toussaint reinforcing for others the vibrant study of the African Louverture, followed by a discussion with Danticat Diaspora in Latin America. Wilson J. Moses, Ferree and Glover, which I had the pleasure of moderating.