Journal Article

News and Views: Black Faculty in Religion Departments at the Nation's Highest-Ranked Universities

1995

Overview

The meager number of blacks pursuing academic study in religion is apparent from our own survey of religion department faculty at the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities. Five universities among the 25 highest-ranked institutions had no department or course of study in religion. Four of these universities were ones that concentrate in the sciences. They are MIT, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, and Carnegie Mellon. The University of Chicago does not have a religion department but it does operate a graduate school of divinity. In addition, Cornell, the University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, and Washington University do not have departments of religion although they do have academic programs in the study of religion. Including the four universities with only academic programs -- not departments -- we found only 12 black faculty members teaching religion at the 25 highest-ranked institutions. These 12 black academics make up 3 percent of all religion faculty at these institutions. Cornell and Princeton were the only universities with more than one black professor of religion. There is no black person on the faculty of religion at Yale, Stanford, Brown, Rice, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, Washington University, the University of Michigan, University of Virginia, or University of California, Berkeley. Editor's Note: Following is a listing of 11 religion scholars at the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities. Nine of the 25 highest-ranked institutions do not have departments of religion. Four of these nine institutions offer programs and courses on religion but do not have official academic departments. Of these four, only Cornell has black scholars who teach in the religion program. Several of the highest-ranked institutions including Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago operate graduate schools of divinity. Black professors who teach solely at these divinity schools are not included here but will be profiled in a later issue of JBHE. Also, such religious scholars as Peter J. Gomes, minister of Memorial Church at Harvard University, who do not actively teach courses in an institution's department of religion, are not included, Assistant professor of religion at Dartmouth, Ifi Amadiume, expressed her desire not to be included in this listing.

• Publisher: BruCon Publishing Company
• Subject: African American Culture / African Culture / Baldwin, Lewis V / Black people / Civil Rights / Colleges & universities / Critical Theory / Departments / Education / Graduate studies / Graduate Study / Greene, Sandra E / Hart, William D / Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks / Higher education / King, Martin Luther Jr (1929-1968) / Politics / Religion / Religious education / Religious schools / Role of Religion / Sabbatical Leaves / Smith, Theophus / Social Change / Specialization / Teachers / Teaching / Theological Education / Universities