The W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute, formerly the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, is part of the
Hutchins Center for African and African American Research The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, also known as the Hutchins Center, is affiliated with Harvard University. The Center supports scholarly research on the history and culture of people of African descent around the world ...
located at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. Its main work is in the provision of fellowships to scholars studying a wide variety of topics relating to its central concerns, which are
African and
African American studies.
History
The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research was established in 1969. It is named after
W. E. B. Du Bois, who was the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1895).
The center was the basis for the foundation of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and is now one of several institutes under the umbrella of this center.
Functions
The Institute awards up to twenty fellowships annually to scholars at various stages in their careers in the fields of
African and
African American studies to facilitate the writing of doctoral dissertations. The appointed fellows conduct individual research for a semester or two in fields broadly related to African and African American Studies. It has supported more than 300 Fellows.
The institute co-hosts the W. E. B. Du Bois Society, an academic and cultural enrichment program for African American
secondary school students, along with
Ella J. Baker House in
Dorchester, Boston. The society was founded by Jacqueline and Rev. Eugene C. Rivers, and its director is Jacqueline O. Cooke Rivers.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African A ...
is the director of the institute.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Bois Institute
Harvard University
1969 establishments in Massachusetts
Black studies organizations
W. E. B. Du Bois