U. of C. hires star scholar on race issues
By Robert Becker
Tribune higher education reporter
Published April 5, 2002
After losing a top African-American scholar to Harvard, the University of Chicago announced Thursday that it has hired one of the nation's leading black scholars of race, politics and gender.
Yale Professor Cathy Cohen will replace Michael Dawson July 1 as director of the university's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. Cohen also will serve as a professor in the political sciences department.
Dawson, considered one of the pre-eminent scholars in the U.S. on African-American political behavior and its relationship to urban poverty, announced in January that he would join the faculty at Harvard University. Dawson joins William Julius Wilson, who moved from the University of Chicago to Harvard six years ago.
Cohen, the third African-American woman to receive tenure at Yale and the first in the social sciences, said the U.ofC.--and Chicago--are rich with professional opportunity.
"It's a fine university with excellent students," Cohen said. "And for someone interested in politics and committed to change, this is a wonderful city to be in."
Cohen, 40, was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated in 1983 from Miami University in Ohio and received her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1993.
Yale hired her that year as an assistant professor, and she was promoted to full professor seven years later. In 1995, she helped start Yale's Center for the Study of Race, Inequality and Politics.
Cohen called the competition for top black scholars "an interesting phenomenon" but said it was important not to lose sight of the larger issue of "expanding the number of scholars of color and opening up the ranks."
Cohen said she wants the U.ofC. center to play an important role in the community.
"I want to emphasize the real commitment of making the race center relevant to the lives of people of Chicago, particularly the people on the South Side."
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
