MEDIA ADVISORY

Cornel West to Speak at Ramapo College’s Conference on the State of the African-American Professoriate

WHO: Dr. Cornel West, Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy of Religion at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University

WHAT: Keynote speaker at the Conference on the State of the African-American Professoriate

WHERE: Sharp Theater in the Berrie Center, Ramapo College of New Jersey

WHEN: Saturday, April 20 at noon

CONTACT: Dr. Henry Vance Davis, associate professor of history, (201) 684-7798.

Cornel West, who just announced that he will move from Harvard to Princeton University, holds the position of university professor at Harvard University, a title held by only 14 of Harvard’s 2,200 faculty, and is one of the first black scholars to be appointed to the university’s highest faculty post. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chairman of Harvard’s Department of Afro-American Studies, describes West as "one of America’s most important public intellectuals, and a formidable scholar by any measure."

West is the author of 15 books, including The American Evasion of Philosophy, Jews and Blacks, The Future of the Race and Restoring Hope. His book, Race Matters, quickly achieved best-seller status in both editions and gained the attention of Time magazine and Newsweek, causing both publications to run extensive profile articles on him. The War Against Parents, co-written with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, with whom he co-chairs the National Parenting Association’s Task Force on Parent Empowerment, was published in 1998. Another publication, (written with Roberto Unger), The Future of American Progressivism, teaches how the growing divisions in our society foster the despair and distrust that undermine our democratic process. His most recent publication, The Cornel West Reader, traces the development of West’s career as academic, intellectual and activist. Also recently released is "Sketches of My Culture," West’s controversial CD.