The Harvard Divinity School and Afro-American Studies Department have offered tenure to Cornel West '74, a prominent Princeton African-American studies scholar, according to Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.
But Appiah, who spoke with West yesterday, said the Princeton professor did not indicate he had made a decision. Appiah said West likely would have told him if West had made a decision.
In a Faculty Council discussion yesterday about outstanding tenure offers, no recent acceptances were mentioned, according to Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox Jr. '59.
West, who refused a position in the Afro-American Studies Department in 1989, was at Harvard two weeks ago to meet with department members and administrators, said Thomson Professor of Government Martin L. Kilson, Jr.
"Anybody who's intrinsically first rate...those are the people who warrant second efforts," said Kilson. "Professor Cornel West is one of those persons."
West is the author of the best-selling book Race Matters, as well as books on multiculturalism and religion.
West's agent, Elliot Fiegenbaum of Royce, Carlton Inc., confirmed that Harvard had made West an offer but said he did not know whether the Princeton professor plans to accept.
If West accepts Harvard's offer, it would continue the transformation of the Afro-American Studies Department, which had only one tenured professor in 1989, into the best African-American studies department West, whose research interests includereligion, philosophy, sociology and popularculture, would bring a diverse social sciencesbackground to the department, which has promisedconcentrators a stronger curricular focus onsocial issues. "I do think [students] were interested inpeople with substantial concerns in issues ofpublic policy," Appiah said. West Writes on manycurrent social and political topics. West's presence, along with the arrival nextyear of Professor of Professor of Afro-AmericanStudies Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham and PublicService Professor E. Leon Higgenbotham, wouldlikely also intensify discussions about a possiblegraduate program, Kilson said. "I'm sure it will be discussed more frequently,I can tell you that," Kilson said
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