Higginbotham Fills Double Role

Professor of Afro-American Studies and of African American Religious History Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is a top scholar of African-American religious history and thought. She is an expert in feminist history and the author of a well-received book on the women's movement in the Black Baptist Church.

She is also the only Black woman tenured in the Faculty of Art and Sciences.

And for both reasons, students say they are elated by her recent appointment to the faculties of Harvard's Afro-American Studies department and Divinity School.

"Thrilled is totally an understatement," says concentrator Monica A. Coleman '95. "I am so happy that Evelyn Higginbotham is coming, because if there are no role model."

Student activism, including a recent Junior Parents Weekend protest, often focuses on the need for more professors of color.

Higginbotham's arrival is cited b both students and administrators as evidence of progress in building a diverse faculty.

"There is no evidence that Harvard as an institution had made it a priority to hire minority faculty until recently," says Cynthia D. Johnson '96 a religion concentrator.

"It is always good to change a situation which is obviously anachronistic, to say the least," says Joy P. Gorham '95, an Afro-American Studies and Social Studies concentrator.

Higginbotham herself says the burden of being the sole Black woman on the Faculty will not be too much to handle.

"I have always enjoyed the mentoring role," she says. "I make a conscious effort to be especially helpful to students, but I have to balance that with the need to get my own work done. If there is a tension in my life it's because I have always tended to spend a lot of time with students, and I realize that I need to balance that with my right to do my work."

But she also says she is somewhat concerned about being the sole Black women professor.

"My biggest concern about coming to Harvard is that the Afro-American Studies Department is in the process of building itself, so I'll have to deal with the basic demands of that fact in conjunction with being the only Black women professor," Higginbotham says.

Higginbotham and her new colleagues in Afro-American Studies say she is coming to Harvard to be a scholar, not to meet a quota.

"We wanted a historian and Evelyn is the best in her Field," says DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr., chair of the Afro-American Studies Department.

"Higginbotham's research is so relevant," Afro-American Studies concentrator Caryn S. Rivers '94 says. "It's fabulous to have that in the department in light of the religious debates emerging in the Black community."

"The quality of Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham's work is terrific--this is a wonderful appointment for Harvard," says Associate Professor of History Ellen Fitzpatrick.

Higginbotham's first book, Righteous Discontent, focuses on the women's movement in the Black Baptist church.

She is now at work on a new book which will examine the relationships between race, gender and feminist theory, she says.

Higginbotham says her scholarly interests emerge from her personal background.

Her father was a scholar who worked with well-known professor Carter Woodson at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, she says.

"So this is a part of my family," Higginbotham says. "Even as a girl I knew I wanted to teach about African-American history."

The tradition of teaching goes back even before her father, Higginbotham says, as does a family link to her interest in religion.

"My grandfather was a historian and minister, and I'm following in that tradition," she says.

Higginbotham is a native of Washington, D.C.. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, a master's from Howard University in her hometown and a doctorate from University of Rochester.

She comes to Harvard from the University of Pennsylvania, where she held a tenured post.

It was the University's new commitment to a strong and interdisciplinary department that drew her to Harvard, Higginbotham says.

"Skip [Gates] is doing a tremendous job of building the department and I think it's a tremendous honor that they want me to be a part of that," she says.

"My own work is very interdisciplinary, so it was an easy decision for me," Higginbotham adds. "It looked like a great place for me to be."

She will teach one course on African-American women and may offer another similar to a class taught at Penn called "The Black Church and the Urban Challenge," she says.

But Higginbotham does not think her Harvard job will be easy. In fact, she says she is worried about the prospect of Having to split time between two different schools.

"Harvard will be... a challenge, though, because I'm going to split my time between two radically different departments, so I'll have pressure coming from two different student constituencies," Higginbotham says.

But Higginbotham says she is up to the challenge. "I accepted it and I look forward to it," she says.