‘Opportunity to Experiment’: Visiting HBCU Scholars Praise Harvard’s Visiting Professorship Program

Four visiting professors from historically Black colleges and universities praised Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Visiting Professorship Program for offering the opportunity and funding to explore their scholarly work.

The professors participating in the program for the 2024-25 academic year — Asem Abdulahad and Carmen Luz Cosme Puntiel from Xavier University of Louisiana, Nicole D. Jenkins from Howard University, and coleman a. jordan from Morgan State University — are reaching the halfway point of their visiting professorships with the conclusion of the fall semester.

The program was launched in 2023 by former FAS Dean Claudine Gay as part of an effort to implement the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative’s third recommendation — to “develop enduring partnerships with HBCUs.”

Last month, the Legacy of Slavery initiative hosted a welcome event for the professors in Lamont Library, where each visiting scholar presented their research and took part in a Q&A session.

The visiting professorships are one of several University efforts to partner with HBCUs — as outlined in the Legacy of Slavery initiative recommendations — including the Du Bois Scholars summer program for undergraduates at HBCUs, the Executive Leadership Institute with Clark Atlanta University, and the HBCU Digital Library Trust.

Harvard Vice Provost of Special Projects Sara N. Bleich, who oversees The Legacy of Slavery initiative, wrote in emailed statement to The Crimson that all of the visiting professors “bring different personal experiences and background that drive their scholarship forward.”

One of the professors, jordan, taught a course at Harvard during the fall semester, while the other three spent the fall working on personal research projects.

jordan, a professor of architecture at Morgan State University, recently concluded his architecture course HAA 174P: “‘I Can’t Breathe!’ Tracing the Spatially Suffocated African Diaspora in the Americas.” jordan said that, during class, his “students have been excited” to engage in conversations, adding that teaching the course is like “supplying a service to some students that were looking for some information, at least on this particular topic.”

jordan said his time at Harvard has provided him “the opportunity to experiment and explore,” both in his research and the newly designed HAA 174P, which he said he hopes to continue teaching at Morgan State.

Jenkins, a professor of sociology and criminology at Howard University, spent the fall semester on a research project that “explores Black women’s experiences with natural hair across the globe.”

Jenkins wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson that Harvard’s financial and academic resources enabled her to take her project to new heights. While she previously only utilized online data for her research, the program allowed her “to travel internationally and conduct in-person interviews” in places like Havana and Paris.

Cosme Puntiel, professor of Spanish and Afro-Latin American and Caribbean studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, studies the narratives of African-descended populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. At Harvard, she said she has focused on her research, calling the campus “a very safe space.”

“This is very peaceful,” Cosme Puntiel said, “and it has really helped me to find myself so I can then give the best of me to my work.”

Cosme Puntiel added that she hopes her experience at Harvard will translate into further opportunities for her students and colleagues at Xavier, encouraging her students “not to fear Harvard.”

“There’s still some fear of the empire of academia,” she said. “I’m trying to demonstrate to them that it is essential that we invade some of those spaces that were denied to us for centuries.”

“It is important for the world to also benefit from our point of views, our talents, our knowledge that are constantly built from our experiences,” she added.

The Visiting Professorship Program is expected to continue in the next academic year. In her email, Bleich wrote that the Legacy of Slavery initiative looks “forward to strengthening existing partnerships and co-developing new ones alongside HBCUs.”

“We are excited about the intellectual exchange, as the visiting professors have expertise to share with our students and faculty,” Bleich wrote in her email. “They’ll bring their Harvard experiences back to their campuses and departments as well.”

—Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @neerajasrikumar.

—Staff writer Annabel M. Yu can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @annabelmyu.

Correction: December 13, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the FAS hosted a welcome event for the visiting professors last month. In fact, the Legacy of Slavery initiative hosted the event.