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Harvard University Annual Report 2011
The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute
for African and African American Research
D
I
B
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 2011
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
About the Institute Institute’s Supporters
The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute is the nation’s oldest The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and
research center dedicated to the study of the history, African American Research is fortunate to have
culture, and social institutions of Africans and the support of Harvard University President
African Americans. Named after the first African Drew Gilpin Faust. The Provost’s Office and
American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, deans across the university have also nurtured
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1895), the our programs and initiatives. Realizing our
Institute was established in May 1975 to create dream of a permanent home in Harvard Square
fellowships that would “facilitate the writing of for the Du Bois Institute would not have been
doctoral dissertations in areas related to Afro- possible without the encouragement and
American Studies.” Today, the Institute awards up support of former Harvard University presidents
to twenty fellowships annually to scholars at various Derek Bok, Neil L. Rudenstine, and Lawrence
stages of their careers in the fields of African and H. Summers; former Provost Steven E. Hyman;
African American Studies, broadly defined to cover former Deans of the Faculty of Arts and
the expanse of the African Diaspora. The Du Bois Sciences Henry Rosovsky, Jeremy Knowles, and
Institute’s research projects and visiting fellows form William C. Kirby; Dean of the Faculty of Arts
the vital nucleus around which revolve a stimulating and Sciences Michael D. Smith; Associate Dean
array of lecture series, art exhibitions, readings, for Faculty Development Laura Gordon Fisher;
conferences, and archival and publication projects. former Divisional Dean for Social Sciences
David Cutler; and former Assistant Dean for
Academic Affairs Rebecca E. F. Wassarman.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Alphonse Fletcher University Professorand
Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African
and African American Research, Harvard
University
page 1: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)
Courtesy of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Executive Committee Member Lawrence D. Bobo with National Advisory Board Member Davis
Weinstock at the 2010 Martha’s Vineyard Event. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell
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Executive Committee National Advisory Board
Lawrence D. Bobo Glenn H. Hutchins, Chair
Caroline Elkins Debra Tanner Abell
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Bennett Ashley
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Carol Biondi
William Julius Wilson Peggy Cooper Cafritz
Gaston Caperton
Richard D. Cohen
Ethelbert Cooper
Norman Epstein
Alphonse Fletcher, Jr.
R. Brandon Fradd
Richard Gilder
Lewis P. Jones III
Mitchell Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein
Robert McG. Lilley
Joanna Lipper
Michael Lynton
Mark C. Mamolen
Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron
Henry W. McGee III
Raymond McGuire
Rory Millson
Clare Muñana
Donald E. and Susan Newhouse
Peter Norton
E. Stanley O’Neal
Adebayo Ogunlesi
Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer
Nicole Parent
Frank H. and Geryl T. Pearl
Richard L. Plepler
Andrew Ramroop
Steven Rattner
Lynda Resnick
Danny Rimer
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose
Daryl Roth
David Roux
Douglas E. Schoen
George T. Wein
Davis Weinstock II
National Advisory Board Chair Glenn H. Hutchins
Linden H. Wise
and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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Letter from the Director
The Du Bois Institute is the world’s leading research law and legal culture in the post-Civil Rights Era,
center in the history and culture of people of African in “Racing to Postracialism.”
descent in the United States, the African continent, The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures recognize
Latin America, Europe, and, really, the world over. distinguished work in topics related to African
Located on three dynamic floors in a building in the American history, a field that has increasingly come
heart of Harvard Square, the Institute is a hub of to be not only about this country but also its
vibrant intellectual activity at Harvard and far connections to the larger African Diaspora. Harold
beyond. The work we do and the community we Holzer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art examined
enjoy at 104 Mount Auburn Street shape the course the legacy of one of our greatest presidents, in
of African and African American Studies throughout “Abraham Lincoln and the Hand of Freedom: Maxim
the world. Every day, the Du Bois Institute con- and Monument, Memory and Myth.” Tudor Parfitt
tributes to the global conversation on matters of the of the University of London explored the evolution
greatest academic, cultural, political, and social and mythologizing of African identity the world over
importance. in his series, “Fabricating Black Jews?”.
As the premier research institute in African and The Zimbabwean author, filmmaker, and activist
African American studies, we enjoy the opportunity Tsitsi Dangarembga was the McMillan-Stewart
to support and present the very best scholarship our Lecturer this year, and her talk on “Zimbabwe:
discipline has to offer. Each of our lecture series— Successes and Failures in Conflict Resolution” was
the W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures, the Nathan I. Huggins an impassioned discussion on the triumphs and
Lectures, the Alain LeRoy Locke Lectures, and the perils in the colonial and postcolonial life of her
McMillan-Stewart Lectures—brings a field-defining home country. Kimberly W. Benston of Haverford
scholar to Harvard for a three-day series of lectures College ended the academic year with his Alain
on new material that is eventually published as a LeRoy Locke Lectures, “Black Hauntologies: Slavery,
book in conjunction with Harvard University Press Modernity, Photography,” a brilliant and nuanced
and Perseus Books. journey through African American literature, culture,
The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures this year brought and forms of representation and expression.
us three illustrious speakers who demonstrate, The past year has seen the publication by
in their different disciplines, that intellectual respon- Harvard University Press of two books that grew out
siveness is a crucial component of political and of these marvelous lecture series: Neil Foley’s
social action. Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton Quest for Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown
University interrogated the meaning of individual, Solidarity, from his Huggins Lecture Series, and
group, and global identity in “The World, The Gerald Early’s A Level Playing Field: African American
Negro, and Africa: Themes in the Thought of Athletes and the Republic of Sports,from his Locke
W. E. B. Du Bois.” Former U.S. Secretary of State Lecture Series.
Condoleezza Rice, now of Stanford University, We host a number of special events throughout
forcefully articulated the connections between the year. I would say that this year we had an
“American Foreign Policy and the Black Experience.” embarrassment of riches. Our year always begins
Kimberlé Crenshaw of the University of California- just before the start of the fall semester, with our
Los Angeles and Columbia University law schools annual gathering at the Old Whaling Church in
braved one of the worst New England winters Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. In 2010, modera-
in memory to deliver a mesmerizing critique of the tor and veteran journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault,
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell
Michelle Alexander of The Ohio State University’s art, ranging from ancient Egypt to the present day,
law school, Charles M. Blow and Bob Herbert which we have housed since 1994. The series
of The New York Times, Lawrence D. Bobo of Harvard comprises new full-color editions of the five original
University, and R. Dwayne Betts, a poet and prison volumes plus three new ones, which will be followed
reform advocate discussed the alarming statistics by the final volume on the twentieth century. The
about the mass incarceration of black men in archive was originally amassed by the collectors Jean
this country as well as real and practical solutions for and Dominique de Ménil in 1960, and scholars and
how to alleviate this crisis. Our panel this summer curators have researched and documented its con-
sees the return of Hunter-Gault and Bobo and tents for five decades.
welcomes James Comer of Yale University School of In the spring, we exhibited prints by the ground-
Medicine, Angel Harris of Princeton University, breaking African-Mexican sculptor and printmaker
Diane Ravitch of New York University, and Michelle Elizabeth Catlett. “DIGAME: Elizabeth Catlett’s
Rhee of StudentsFirst to talk about disparities in Forever Love” featured a number of rarely shown and
education and advancement, in “Separate but privately held pieces, including “The Sharecropper”
Unequal: Closing the Education Gap.” (oil painting), the “I Am The Black Woman”
Each year, our Neil L. and Angelica Zander suite (fourteen linoleum cuts), and the “For My
Rudenstine Gallery becomes more of a force in the People” suite (six color lithographs). In April,
art world. We featured two landmark exhibitions Catlett, who had just turned 96, joined me for an
this year. In the fall, “Africans in Black & White: illuminating conversation about art, activism,
Images of Blacks in 16th- and 17th-Century Prints” and her experience as a black artist in both the U.S.
featured prints by European masters including and Mexico. We spoke in the Hiphop Archive,
Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Rembrandt where an overflow crowd of all ages was able to
Harmensz van Rijn, and Peter Paul Rubens. Curated witness this singular event. The Hiphop Archive
by David Bindman, Emeritus Professor of the itself, under the leadership of its executive director,
History of Art at University College London and Professor Marcyliena Morgan, becomes something
2010 Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the of a participant in any event, and you can learn
Du Bois Institute, and Anna Knaap, Visiting Fellow about its own unique programming in the pages
at the Jesuit Institute of Boston College, it was ahead.
presented in conjunction with Harvard Art Museums. Catlett’s iconic “Sharecropper” image appeared
Never before had the Rudenstine Gallery housed art on the poster for our phenomenal Black in Latin
of this provenance. America Conference, which gathered scholars from
The exhibition was part of a constellation of Latin America and the United States in the first
events surrounding the launch of The Image of the conference of its kind at Harvard. The study of the
Black in Western Art, a ten-volume series co-edited by African Diaspora and Afrodescendants in Latin
Professor Bindman and me and published by America is exploding in our field. It is, without
Harvard University Press, including the M. Victor question, one of the most exciting developments
Leventritt Symposium, co-sponsored by the Du Bois I have witnessed over the course of my career.
Institute and the Harvard Art Museums and featuring I had long been aware of the numbers—for instance,
several contributors to the series. The Image of the that the slave trade brought 450,000 Africans to
Blackseries is based on the Du Bois Institute’s the United States, whereas it brought 11.2 million
archives of 26,000 images of black people in Western Africans to the Caribbean and Latin America, and
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Letter from the Director
that the African-descended population of Brazil is American opera, Porgy & Bess, which will premiere in
the largest outside of the African continent. But it September. I moderated a conversation with ART
wasn’t until I went to Latin America to research and artistic director Diane Paulus, Pulitzer Prize-winning
film my documentary, “Black in Latin America” playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, and Harvard professors
(which aired on PBS in April and May 2011) and until Marjorie Garber and Ingrid Monson on the history
I spoke to dozens of scholars in Latin America of this legendary piece of American music and
and the U.S. who work in this area that I became the ART’s new version of it.
fully aware of how crucial the study of blacks in Latin In June, we partnered with The College Board
America is to African and African American Studies. Advocacy & Policy Center to host “The Educational
We brightened January in Cambridge by bring- Experience of Young Men of Color,” a panel
ing more than 40 scholars and writers from Cuba, discussion stemming from The College Board’s two
the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil, Peru, Brazil, new reports, The Educational Experience of Young Men
Mexico, Colombia, and the U.S. to talk about their of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress and
work, which is defining a new direction in research Capturing the Student Voice. To mark this event,
on the African Diaspora. This group included I co-wrote with Gaston Caperton, the President of
many of the deans of this field of study: Miguel the College Board, the former governor of my
Barnet of Cuba, Frank Moya Pons of the Dominican native West Virginia, and a cherished member of
Republic, Joao José Reis of Brazil (who will be at the our National Advisory Board, an opinion piece
Du Bois Institute next year as a Resident Fellow), that appeared simultaneously on The Root and the
José “Cheche” Campos of Peru, and Franklin Knight, Huffington Post, “We Must Educate All Our Young
Herbert S. Klein, and Rebecca Scott of the U.S. Men.”
For this conference, we had the invaluable support Our most steadfast partners throughout the
of the Committee on African Studies, the David year were the Department of African and African
Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the American Studies, helmed this year by Professor
Department of African and African American Lawrence D. Bobo, during the sabbatical of Professor
Studies, and the Deans of the Divisions of the Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and the Committee
Humanities and of the Social Sciences. on African Studies, led to new heights of greatness
Our collaborations with other Harvard entities by Professor Caroline Elkins. You will see both
enriched our offerings this year in so many ways. of these figures and their programs figuring
I have already mentioned our partnership with the prominently in the pages of ahead. They provide me
Harvard Art Museums on the launch of The Image with models of intellectual and administrative
of the Black in Western Art, and the numerous partners leadership from which I continue to learn.
who helped make the Black in Latin America Our fellowship program remains the core of
Conference a landmark event. The JFK Forum of the the work we do at the Du Bois Institute. It is the
Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School public face of our scholarly endeavor, and we were
of Government and the Askwith Forums at the privileged again this year to host the best and
Harvard Graduate School of Education enabled us to brightest in the field of African and African American
bring Condoleezza Rice’s Du Bois Lectures to the studies. From doctoral candidates to professors
widest audience possible. emeriti, our twenty fellows are shaping the field in
We worked with the American Repertory Theater the U.S. and around the world. They came from
for a discussion on its “reimagining” of the seminal South Africa, England, and all corners of the U.S.
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to remind us of our citizenship in the world. Our field of African and African American Studies while
weekly public colloquium, in which a fellow presents pushing it forward into new territories.
his or her work-in-progress, is a regular Harvard I received my fifty-first honorary degree this
highlight that draws people from around Harvard past December from Cleveland State University, an
and surrounding communities. We welcomed a institution with which I share a long association,
number of guest speakers this year, and we contin- as well as the American Vision Award from the
ued with our innovative Fellows’ Workshops. Children’s Book Press and the 2010 McDonald’s
Fellows presented both in traditional seminars and 365 Black Award. Ebony Magazineincluded me on its
in more unconventional ways. For instance, the Power 100 List in 2010, and the Tanenbaum Center
playwright and literary critic Lisa B. Thompson, who for Interreligious Tolerance graced me with its 2011
was with us all year, staged a reading of her play- Media Bridge-Builder Award. I also received two
in-progress, “Mamalogues,” at the Hiphop Archive, very special awards from my own institution,
in a performance that featured stalwarts of the Harvard University: one, the Walter Channing Cabot
contemporary theater scene, including the Tony Fellowship for achievements in the fields of litera-
Award-nominated actor and director, Colman ture, history, and art, put me in the esteemed
Domingo. company of colleagues including Caroline Elkins,
As it was for the Du Bois Institute, this was Jill Lepore, John Stauffer, and Marjorie Garber,
a terrific year for me professionally, too, even as the to name just a few; the other, the Favorite Professor
loss of my father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., on of the Class of 2011 from Harvard Yearbook
Christmas Eve at the age of 97½, reminded me that Publications, was the best reminder of why I do
nothing is to be taken for granted. I authored three what I do each day.
books over the past year: Tradition and the Black The Du Bois Institute has achieved its level of
Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora(Basic unmatched prominence through the hard work and
Civitas Books), Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary support of faculty, staff, and our supporters around
Americans Reclaimed Their Pasts(New York University the world. Our National Advisory Board sustains
Press), and Black in Latin America(New York University us and enables us to engage in the stellar program-
Press), which I dedicated in honor of our National ming and groundbreaking initiatives that you will
Advisory Board chair, Glenn H. Hutchins. These last read about in the pages ahead.
two were based on my most recent PBS film series, We look forward to the next academic year with
“Faces of America,” which aired in the winter every confidence that it will surpass, not merely
of 2010, and “Black in Latin America,” which aired match, the great year we have just finished. What I
in the spring of 2011. The books and the film said last year bears repeating: I am grateful on a daily
allowed me to continue my exploration of African basis for my good fortune in serving as the Director
ancestry and genealogy, which have become the of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. I hope you will
dominant strains in my current scholarship. This enjoy learning about all that we did last year, and that
year, I also co-edited, with Jennifer Burton, the you will join us as we move forward.
volume Call and Response: Key Debates in African
American Studies(W. W. Norton) and, with Anthony Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Appiah, the Encyclopedia of Africa: Two-Volume Set Alphonse Fletcher University Professorand
(Oxford University Press). All of these books togeth- Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and
er allowed me to pay homage to the roots of the African American Research, Harvard University
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Special Event – Panel Discussion
Locked Out, Locked Up: Black Men in America
R. Dwayne Betts, Michelle Alexander, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell Bob Herbert, Lawrence D. Bobo, Charles M. Blow, and R. Dwayne Betts. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell
Old Whaling Church
Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard
August 19, 2010
Host
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University
Professorand Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for
African and African American Research, Harvard
University
Moderator
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Emmy and Peabody Henry Louis Gates, Jr. listens to panelists at the Old Whaling Church. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell
Award-winning journalist
Panelists
Michelle Alexander, Associate Professor of Law,
The Ohio State University
R. Dwayne Betts, Poet/Advocate
Charles M. Blow, Visual Op-Ed Columnist,
The New York Times
Lawrence D. Bobo, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the
Social Sciences,Harvard University
Bob Herbert, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times
Old Whaling Church, Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell
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