The Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship at KU
The Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship was established at the University of Kansas in 1977 in honor of the African American poet, playwright and fiction writer who lived in Lawrence from 1903 to 1916. Over the years, the visiting professorship has attracted prominent or emerging ethnic minority scholars to the university campus, involving a broad range of disciplines and academic departments/schools. This one-semester appointment provides the recipient with a stipend appropriate to the candidate’s rank, a small travel allowance, and a modestly furnished apartment near the KU campus.
The Langston Hughes Professor will teach two courses during the semester of their appointment and deliver a campus-wide symposium on a topic or issue related to their discipline. A reception immediately following the symposium is provided in honor of the visiting professor.
There is a call for nominations from the Provost to the campus community. After nominations from the school/college deans are received, the “Langston Hughes Committee” will begin their screening process and deliberations. This committee simultaneously works with the specific department(s) to which the potential candidate(s) may be appointed, while planning for and agreeing upon the two courses a candidate could offer during their semester at KU. Once the committee decision is made, their recommendation is sent to the Provost for final approval.
- Call for Nominations (70 KB)
The Langston Hughes Professorship has not only been a valuable program for bringing prominent ethnic minority scholars to the University for this prestigious appointment, but has also created an opportunity to engage in the campus-wide symposium a variety of topics and issues that otherwise would not be possible. In addition, several past recipients are now tenured faculty members at KU – a direct result of their appointment as a recipient of the Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship.
Abydos Revisited: World’s Oldest Drama, Religious Sexuality & the Promise of a New Black Drama Aesthetic!
Henry Miller (Ph.D., Theatre, City University of New York) is a theatre scholar, an experienced stage director, and a dramatist. He is a veteran of the Black Theatre Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, an era that fed his passion for African American theatre. He has staged more than 30 African American theatrical productions and studied playwriting with notable dramatists including Arthur Kopit.
Rediscovering the Life of a Black Religious Intellectual: Benjamin Elijah Mays in the Making of the American Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Randal Jelks is an Associate Professor of American Studies with a joint appointment in African and African American Studies at KU.
The Stewarts: The Triumph of an American Family
Professor Broussard is a historian specializing in the history of African-Americans in the West. Broussard’s research of the Stewart family was published in African-American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853-1963, one of two of Broussard’s books published by the University Press of Kansas.
The Blues Impulse in Film and Video
Madison Davis Lacy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies at KU.
Flatted Fifth: poetry and fiction readings
A KU graduate, Maxine Clair is an associate professor emeritus from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she taught creative writing.
Common Themes in African Diasporan Literatures.
A Great Man Has Fallen: Booker T. Washington's Memory as Reflected in Letters of Solace
Margaret Walker: A Life, a Poem
Dr. Maryemma Graham is a faculty member in the Department of English at KU.
Living Arrangements: There Are No Walls...There Are Only Bottoms
Carol Ann Carter is a faculty member within the Department of Visual Art at KU.
Social Function in the Poetry of Frank Marshall Davis
John Edgar Tidwell is a faculty member faculty member in the Department of English at KU.
African-American Models in the Music of Contemporary Africa
Langston Hughes and the River Between (the Making of a Poet)
A Nigerian by birth, Dr. Joel Adedeji is a cultural ambassador and world consultant on African affairs and culture. He holds a diploma in speech and drama from Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, England, bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University, and a doctorate from the University of Ibadan.
The Humanities Now! A Third World (Carribean) Perspective
Mervyn C. Alleyne is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of the West Indies, and Visiting Professor, College of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
The Practice of Architecture in a Post-Industrial City
The United States and South Africa: Comparative Perspectives
Dr. Surendra Bhana is a professor emeritus of History at KU. He taught at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa from 1972 to 1987, the last eight years as professor and head. From January 1988 to May 1991, he was visiting professor at the University of Kansas, and, beginning August 1991, a regular faculty member. His teaching and research interests are South African history with special reference to Indians.
Langston Hughes: Art and the Literature of Necessity
Dr. Arthur D. Drayton, a graduate of the University of London, is a professor emeritus of African and African-American Studies at KU.
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