Dr. Shaun R. Harper, whose groundbreaking research on campus climate and racial equity has made him a leader in the field of education, is leaving the University of Pennsylvania and will join the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California (USC), effective July 1.
Harper will hold the endowed Clifford and Betty Allen Professorship in Urban Leadership, and will lead the new USC Race and Equity Center.
In an interview with Diverse, Harper said that his decision to go west was inspired by USC’s commitment to diversity and inclusion as articulated to him by the school’s provost, Dr. Michael Quick.
“I talk to hundreds of college presidents, provosts and deans and they all say they are committed to diversity,” he said, adding that he is often skeptical because “there is usually so much evidence to the contrary. But with this provost, I believe him.”
For Harper, who is currently president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and an elected member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), this will be his second stint at USC.
After he earned a Ph.D. in higher education from Indiana University in 2003, he was hired as an assistant professor at USC. He left in 2005 to teach at Penn State University and, in 2007, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.
“I’m not leaving Penn because I’m unsatisfied. It’s exactly the opposite,” said Harper, who has published 12 books and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic publications. “Penn has done a remarkable job through the decade that I’ve been here to show me how valued me and my work are.”
