At the age of 64, Dr. Nell Irvin Painter — one of the nation’s most respected Black historians — has become an undergraduate student all over again. Most of her classmates are the same age as the students she once taught.
Painter, who retired from Princeton University in 2005 after serving as the Edwards Professor of American History and director of the school’s African American studies department, is now enrolled as a full-time student at Rutgers University, where she is working toward a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Painter says the study of photography in particular is an interest that she always wanted to pursue, but never got around to until after she retired from Princeton.
In addition to her undergraduate studies, Painter is now poised to assume the presidency of the Organization of American Historians, the 100-year-old organization dedicated to the study, practice and teaching of American history.
She is the third Black woman ever to serve as the organization’s president and is replacing Dr. Richard White, the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University.
Painter says that as president she has no grandiose plans for now. She is most concerned that the organization remains on firm financial footing, and she says she plans to spend much of her presidency simply listening to her colleagues.
