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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 6165
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 07:23 pm: | 
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Outspoken Scholar of Black Culture Joins Faculty
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 4, 2007; Page B06
Georgetown, which has never been known for scholarship in black issues, lured Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania. (Before that, he had jumped around among the University of North Carolina, Brown University, Columbia University and elsewhere. "I want to sink some roots," he said.)
He'll be a "university professor," a post that gives him free reign across academic departments, and he expects to work in English, theology, sociology, philosophy and African American studies.
It's the kind of hire that gets the school attention; Dyson is often mentioned in the same breath as such star scholars as Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
It's also the kind that can irk some academics. Dyson is a pop-culture guy, not a researcher hidden in a library or a lab. He's on the radio, he's on TV, he's on book tour, he's talking about hip-hop and Cosby and Don Imus. His latest book has an introduction by Jay-Z and an afterward (sorry, "intro" and "outro") by Nas.
And he's endorsing Barack Obama this week to a crowd of thousands at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. He and his wife are involved with Obama's and Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaigns, respectively. With an election coming, it's a great time to be in Washington, he said the day after he watched the Democratic candidates debate at Howard University.
He plans to "forge connections between the city and the university, with the black community, which perhaps felt alienated from Georgetown."
O'Donnell said that, in the past, Georgetown has been "less engaged in the city's life, on our hilltop in Northwest. We've turned that around in the last 30 to 40 years," with many volunteers in public schools, legal clinics and other programs. "Sometimes reputation lags a little bit. We'd like to do even more."
The city is "a laboratory of social ills that need to be addressed," Dyson said, and he foresees opportunities to work in the schools, leverage the power of black churches in the area and strengthen the connections and visibility of existing Georgetown programs.
Full Article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/03/AR2007070302090.html |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2121
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 12:54 pm: |
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Thanks, Tonya! You might be interested that Elijah Anderson is also leaving Penn. (For Yale?) He is probably less well known than Dyson, but has done some fascinating work on urban communities. http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/soc/People/andersonelijah.htm |
Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1688
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 09:05 pm: |
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YEAH MICHEAL ERIC DYSON!!! |
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