Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, has announced the 2025-2026 class of fellows.
“We are happy to welcome our next cohort of W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows,” says Gates. New to the Du Bois Research Institute Fellowship Program this year is the Black Film Project Fellowship. Led by Gates and executive director Jacqueline Glover, the Black Film Project supports filmmakers who focus on Black history and culture in both narrative and documentary projects.
“We look forward to the new fellows’ stellar scholarly and creative work next academic year. The first anthology of Black sonnets, the first biography of a Black man enslaved in Canada, public housing and hiphop culture, a database of African music, a history of African American family storytelling, and the work of three filmmakers are among the compelling projects that the 2025-2026 class of fellows will bring to the W.E.B Du Bois Research Institute, housed in the Hutchins Center.”
The 18 fellows are as follows:
• David Bindman is the Emeritus Durning-Lawrence Professor of the History of Art at University College London.
• Charles Blow is a writer, journalist, and former Opinion columnist for The New York Times.
• Jordan Brown is a Doctoral Candidate in Ethnomusicology at Harvard University.
• Rodney Carmichael is a Hiphop Writer, Correspondent, and Host at NPR, Washington, D.C.
• Kendra Taira Field is Associate Professor of History at Tufts and Chief Historian of the 10 Million Names project, which is dedicated to recovering the names of the people African descent who were enslaved in America.
• Arlette Frund is Professor Emeritus, University of Tours.
• Cheryl Gilkes is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African American Studies Emerita at Colby College.
• Justine McConnell is Reader in Comparative Literature and Classical Reception at King’s College London.
• Jordan Taliha McDonald is a Doctoral Candidate in the English Department with a secondary field in History of Science at Harvard University.
• Charmaine Nelson is Provost Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
• Sanele Ntshingana is Lecturer in African Languages at the University of Cape Town.
• Hollis Robbins is Special Adviser for Humanities at the University of Utah.
• Anna Deveare Smith is University Professor in Art and Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
• Aurora Vergara Figueroa is a sociologist and, until recently, the Minister of Education in Colombia.
• Edward Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer and Director of Humanities Lab, Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York.
The inaugural Black Film Project Fellows are:
• André Holland is an acclaimed actor, theater director, and film producer.
• Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, and photographer.
• Darol Olu Kae is a filmmaker from and based in Los Angeles.
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