Bowdoin College Creates Chairs to Honor Esteemed Black Graduates

Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin College will create four endowed professorships to honor four celebrated Black graduates of the institution. The new professorships will help recruit faculty whose research focuses on race, racism, and racial justice.

"Through incredibly generous and anonymous gifts, these new professorships will benefit the College in several critical ways, including with fresh and exciting intellectual and curricular insights and experiences and by providing role models and mentors for junior faculty and our students," said Dr. Clayton Rose, president of Bowdoin College.

The four new chairs will be named after the following Black alumni: Matthew D. Branche, Iris W. Davis, Rasuli Lewis, and Frederic Morrow. The College added that the professorships will also play a key role in attracting and retaining faculty, particularly those of color.

"Our new colleagues will engage in and catalyze interdisciplinary scholarship on issues of race, racism, and racial justice and enhance our students' understanding of these issues as we prepare them to make change to lead in the world," said Rose.