Dr. Ibram X. Kendi to Join Boston University
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
and Dr. Stanley Sclaroff, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Ibram X. Kendi will join Boston University this summer as a Professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts & Sciences, following the completion of our standard professorial appointment process. Dr. Kendi will establish a new University-wide research center that will be titled the ‘BU Center for Antiracist Research.’ This center will bring together researchers and practitioners from across the University and the region to engage around issues of racism and racial justice.
The creation of the BU Center for Antiracist Research and the addition of Dr. Kendi to our faculty are important steps forward for the University. While conversations about these developments have been underway for months, the need for work in this area has become even more visible in recent days, as we have all experienced painful reminders of the persistence of racism and racial inequities in our society.
While developing the University’s new strategic plan for 2030, the Strategic Planning Task Force set as an explicit goal the creation of a research and scholarly hub focused on social and racial justice as one way to advance one of the five strategic commitments, namely diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are excited that important progress towards this goal will be achieved with the creation of the Center for Antiracist Research.
Professor Kendi comes to BU from American University, where he served as the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center. He is one of the nation’s leading scholars on race and racism, authoring the 2019 best-selling book How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award in 2016. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Kendi and his family to Boston University.