Ana Torres Ayala's Weblog

Another “First African American woman” might be used to describe Shirley Ann Jackson if she is selected to preside Harvard University. Her name is being suggested by academic leaders along with that of other women and scientists as possible candidates.

Jackson was the first African American woman to:

earn a PhD from MIT
earn a physics [...]

That is the title of an essay by Dr. James Anderson on the integration of African American faculty in northern (non-HBCU) institutions in the 1940s.

Dr. Allison Davis was said to be the first African American to be granted tenure at a northern predominantly white university in 1943 (or 1941 according to other sources). [...]

So much is being written these days about academic freedom. Here are two pieces from another angle on this subject: students requesting to opt out of assignments. An article on Inside Higher Ed describes complaints in Arizona for a reading assignment of a novel considered offensive. It bothered a legislator enough to [...]

After a day of doing research online (from home!), one thought comes to mind: “How did I finish my Bachelors without the Web?” I started engineering studies in 1992, yes, before we had the Web. No Google, no electronic journal database, limited computer time on campus. Ok, I do remember how I did it… [...]