At Af-Am, ‘It’s the Higginbotham Era’

After 15 years, the Department of African and African American Studies is changing hands. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, the Thomas professor of history and of Af-Am, is the second woman to lead the department, three years shy of its 40th birthday. Former chair Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., who is Du Bois professor of the Humanities, will continue directing the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

A historian of the black church and a scholar of African American women in the 19th and 20th centuries, Higginbotham became the second black woman to be tenured in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) when she arrived at Harvard in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, she also sits on the faculty advisory group of the Presidential Search Committee.

Higginbotham, a former director of undergraduate studies in the Af-Am department, is known for her academic and advising talents. Indeed, she told The Crimson in a March 22, 1994 article that “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.” In her newest role, the tension will “probably be business as usual for me,” said Higginbotham, who aspires to have advisees calling her even after they graduate.

And they do. In the year since she left Harvard, Daniella L. Boston ’05 has been keeping her former adviser up-to-date on her human rights work. “I can’t even remember in what capacity she was advising me, which is a testament to the fact that it felt quite genuine and warm the way she was reaching out to the students and being a really good mentor rather than the necessary bureaucratic role she inevitably had to play,” said Boston, who founded uNight, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting war victims in northern Uganda.

These days, the two have been talking about an alumni network Higginbotham plans on establishing. The network is part of a broader focus on community-based learning. Higginbotham, whose late husband A. Leon Higginbotham was a federal judge and an international mediator for South Africa’s first post-apartheid elections in 1994, wants students to be introduced to “careers that are successful and also do good—careers that clearly will support them and make them feel they can pay back their college loans, but at the same time are careers that make a social contribution.”

Although the department’s website and the FAS directory do not yet reflect the changeover, Gates, who is back this semester from sick leave, said he is happy to sit back and hand the reins to someone he also considers a best friend. “She’s been a model citizen—I think she’s occupied every possible position in the department,” Gates said. “She’s subtle and sensitive but also very tough-minded and determined and unalterably committed to continuing to build the greatest center for African and African American studies in the world.”

Among her goals, Higginbotham hopes to organize a symposium on health careers, encourage students in African studies to think about global health issues academically and in application, and find ways for students to join healthcare projects. Noting a surge in interest for African languages—the department ran out of food and seats at their open house for the languages program—Higginbotham wants to emphasize the linguistic portion of the department. And she wants to see more collaboration with Harvard’s other schools.

As one of Gates’ first hires, Higginbotham arrived while he was expanding what would become widely known as the most prestigious Af-Am program.

“Imagine coming into a department, having no idea what it would look like—for me that was a wonderful challenge to be part of a building process,” Higginbotham recalls. “I feel honored to be able to take the helm from a leader such as Skip Gates but also to be part of a new dream.”

Her predecessor said he is energized by her many ideas. “It’s the Higginbotham era,” Gates declared.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.