Du Bois Institute fellows ‘distinguished group’

Lawrence D. Bobo, acting director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, has announced the appointment of 14 new fellows for the 2003-04 academic year.

“This year’s fellows span as diverse and rich a range of interests as any group we’ve hosted in the past. Their fields run from business, law, and education to history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and education,” said Bobo. “The work of this distinguished group of scholars further actualizes the new name of the institute and offers the Harvard community an exciting collection of scholars who we are confident will create, provoke, and engage new dialogues in our field of study.”

Since its creation in 1975, the Du Bois Institute has annually appointed scholars who conduct individual research for a period of up to one academic year in a variety of fields within African and African-American studies. The institute accepts established and emerging scholars from both the humanities and social sciences. Fellows conduct their research by using resources from Harvard’s extensive library system, as well as from the institute’s research projects, including the African Art Database, the Image of the Black in Western Art Research and Photo Archive, and the Timbuktu Library Project, among others. Du Bois Fellows also participate in the varied activities of the institute including public conferences, lectures, readings, and forums.

The 2003-04 Du Bois Fellows and their research projects are as follows:

Wallace Best is an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Working within the fields of American and African-American religious studies, Best’s research and writing focus on the relationship between migration, urbanization, and religious transformation. His research project is titled “Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952.”

Regine O. Jackson is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Richmond. She specializes in race and ethnic relations, American immigration, and urban ethnography. Her research project is titled “No Longer Visible: Haitian Immigrants in the ‘New Boston.’”

David Kim is assistant professor of philosophy and previously NEH chair at the University of San Francisco. His research interests and publications focus on moral psychology, Asian-American politics, U.S. imperialism, black nationalism, internationalism, and Third World Marxism. His research project is titled “Negroes and Orientals: The Black Pacific and the American Century.”

Robert Korstad is associate professor of public-policy studies and history at Duke University. His research interests include 20th century U.S. history, African-American history, and contemporary social policy. His research project is titled “The Political Economy of White Supremacy.”

Hamieda Parker is lecturer in the field of entrepreneurship and new product development in the master’s of business administration program at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Currently, she is completing her dissertation, which is in the field of entrepreneurship and examines how entrepreneurial technology-based firms develop new products by collaborating with other firms. Her research project is titled “Facilitating Entrepreneurship amongst Disadvantaged Communities.”

June Pym is a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Her most recent work has focused on addressing the gaps and disparities arising from educational disadvantage and facilitating the completion of a degree. Her research project is titled “Deep Level Learning and the Pertinent Issues That Impact on Learning for Previously Disadvantaged Students at the University of Cape Town.”

Ato Quayson is a professor of English at the University of Cambridge and has published widely on African and postcolonial studies. His research project is titled “Representations of Physical Disability in African and African-American Writing.”

Ronald Radano is professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he teaches in the School of Music and in the Department of Afro-American Studies. Radano’s research explores various aspects of musical practice, representation, and consumption within the broader domains of society and culture. His research project is titled “Rhythm Circuits: The Global Transmission of Black Music.”

Christopher Saunders was awarded his D.Phil. at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. He has written on a wide range of historical topics, including the history of the Eastern Cape. His research project is titled “Comparisons and Links Between Freedom Struggles in South Africa and the United States.”

Nick Shepherd is a senior lecturer in the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town, and a member of the executive committee of the World Archeological Congress. Shepherd’s recent publications have focused on the politics of archeology in Africa, on the invention of South African prehistory, on the use of “Native” labor in archeology, and on issues of science, culture, and identity in South African archeology post-1994. His research project is titled “Archeology and Post-Colonialism.”

Follarin Shyllon is a professor of law at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and is a consultant to the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s Division of Cultural Heritage. He has written many essays and articles about intellectual and cultural property rights, constitutional rights, and human rights. His research project is titled “Biography of Edward Long, 18th Century Jamaica Planter.”

Claude Steele is the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford University. His theory of “self-affirmation” describes processes for coping with self-image threat, and his theory of “stereotype threat” describes how negative group stereotypes – through the self-evaluative and belonging-ness threats they pose – can affect important behaviors such as intellectual performance and intergroup relations. His research project is titled “Contingencies of Social Identity – Their Unseen Effects on Human Performance and the Quality of Life in a Diverse Society.”

Dorothy M. Steele is the associate director of the Research Institute of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She is an early-childhood educator who is interested in public school reform including teaching practices that are effective for diverse classrooms, alternative assessment processes that inform teaching and learning, and strategies that build inclusive communities of learners in schools. Her research project is titled “Reflections on the Stanford Integrated School Project.”

Rebeccah Welch is a lecturer at New York University. Her research interests include African-American history, comparative gender studies, and the history of the black diaspora, with a specific interest in the study of everyday life and social movements. Her research project is titled “Black Art and Activism in Postwar New York.”