Harvard University is looking to hire three to four ethnic studies faculty by the end of the academic year.
The sentiment was expressed by Dr. Claudine Gay, dean of Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in a recent interview with the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.
The school’s ethnic studies faculty search resumed in the fall after being indefinitely suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This fall, we will reactivate the cluster hire in ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration, with the goal of making four new faculty appointments,” Gay wrote in an Aug. 20 news release. “These appointments are critical to our long-term efforts to strengthen our research and teaching capacity and ensure that our students have access to this vital body of knowledge.”
Anna Cowenhoven, Harvard associate dean for communications and marketing, confirmed in an email that the search had restarted earlier this month.
Advocates have been lobbying the school for an ethnic studies program for approximately five decades, and the school’s recent history on the subject has been fraught, including the 2019 denial of tenure to Latinx studies professor Dr. Lorgia García Peña, who has been at the school since 2013. The denial was met with criticism, a student protest and several letters sent to Harvard administrators from students, faculty and other advocates.
The faculty letter — sent to Harvard President Dr. Lawrence Bacow — was signed by more than 200 faculty nationwide and beyond, including prominent scholars Angela Davis and bell hooks.
