Hutchins Center announces Du Bois Fellows

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, welcomed 23 Fellows for the 2018–19 academic year.

“We are happy to welcome yet another class of scholars and artists engaged in timely and exciting work,” said Gates. “Images of the Black in Latin America and the Caribbean, political rap music and racial attitudes, Black women’s root-working traditions, Black mariners and eighteenth-century slavery, a novel about 9th Cavalry Buffalo soldiers, Ancient Egypt and race in visual culture, the origins of convict leasing, the gender politics of Black publishing, and Caribbean youth and police surveillance are among the extraordinary, important projects which the incoming fellows will be pursuing and presenting at the W. E. B Du Bois Research Institute, housed in the Hutchins Center.”

The 2018–19 W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows and their projects are as follows:

• David Bindman is professor emeritus of the history of srt at University College London. As the Image of the Black in Western Art Fellow for Fall 2018, he will complete work on the volume “The Image of the Black in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
• Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey is associate professor of political science at Georgia State University. As a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hiphop Archive Research Institute for Fall 2018, she will work on “What’s on Your Radio?: Political Rap Music and Racial Attitudes.”
• Kinitra Brooks is associate professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. As the Advancing Equity Through Research Fellow for the 2018–19 academic year, she will work on “The Conjure Woman’s Garden: Black Women’s Rootworking Traditions.”
• Huey Copeland is associate professor of art history at Northwestern University. As a Cohen Fellow for Spring 2019, he will work on “In the Shadow of the Negress: Modern Artistic Practice in the Transatlantic World.”
• Robyn D’Avignon is assistant professor of history at New York University. As the McMillan-Stewart Fellow for the 2018–19 academic year, she will be at work on “Shadow Geology: The Search for Subterranean Knowledge in West Africa.”
• Mary Hicks is assistant professor of black studies and history at Amherst College. As the Mamolen Fellow for the 2018–19 academic year, she will be working on “Captivity’s Commerce: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery, 1721-1835.”
• Peter Hulme is professor emeritus of literature at the University of Essex. As the Stuart Hall Fellow for Fall 2018, he will be at work on “Wilfred A. Domingo: One of the chief trouble-makers among the Negroes.”
• Rumbi Katedza is a filmmaker and writer. As the Manyika Fellow for Fall 2018, she will address the subject of refugees and homeland.
• Antonia Lant is professor of cinema studies at New York University. As a Cohen fellow for Spring 2019, she will work on “Ancient Egypt and Race in American Visual Culture (1895-1939).”