When it comes to LGBTQ and queer studies, Dr. Dwight A. McBride has been a pioneering theorist, churning out groundbreaking scholarship that examines the intersection of race and sexuality.
An expert on African-American literature, cultural, sexuality and gender studies, McBride rose to national prominence with his thoughtful and provocative essays, such as “Can the Queen Speak: Sexuality, Racial Essentialism and the Problem of Authority,” and his best-selling book Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality.
Currently the Daniel Hale Williams Professor of African-American Studies, English and Performance Studies and the dean and associate provost for graduate education at Northwestern University, McBride is now readying himself for the next challenge of his career: to become the provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at Emory University.
It’s a post that he says he’s ready to assume, after he has spent years as a fierce advocate for equity and access issues in his current post as graduate school dean. During his tenure as dean of the graduate school, McBride has been credited with increasing the number of minority graduate students and pushing the university to become more receptive to the issues that impact LGBTQ students.
Northwestern officials say that McBride implemented a major increase in financial and academic support for Ph.D. and MFA students and expanded professional development for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
“Northwestern has benefited greatly from Dwight’s stewardship of a complex academic enterprise, his strong scholarly achievements and his untiring efforts to create a holistic student experience,” says Dr. Daniel Linzer, who is the retiring provost at Northwestern. “He will be very much missed by many.”
McBride says that his decision to leave Northwestern was not an easy one. He first arrived at the university in 2002 and has spent the majority of his career there, save a few years when he departed for the University of Illinois at Chicago where he served as the dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
