Prestigious institutions receive more black scholars, study finds

NYU ranked fifth in a recent study that showed at which universities the country's most-cited black scholars in the social arts and humanities work. The study also noted that of the black professors most-cited in those fields, the majority work at only a small number of prestigious institutions.

Amadu Jacky Kaba, an assistant professor of sociology at Seton Hall University, conducted the study.

"The data reveal that these distinguished professors and scholars are teaching or conducting their research at the most prestigious or highest rank academic institutions in the United States," Kaba said in the study.

Harvard University ranked first with 10 professors, Princeton University was second with six professors, Stanford University was third, also with six professors, and Yale University was fourth with five professors.

Of the 56 black scholars cited in the study, more than half are concentrated at five institutions: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale and NYU.

The four NYU scholars were: Derrick Bell, a visiting law professor; history professor David Levering-Lewis; Paule Marshall, the Helen Gould Sheppard Chair of Literature and Culture; and Peter Blair Henry, who will become dean of the Stern School of Business in January 2010.

Awam Amkpa, director of Africana Studies at NYU, suggested that the dense concentration is financially related.

"Rich schools have created a hierarchy where they get the few and the best professors," Amkpa said. "They have the resources to do this."

Many black scholars have an affinity toward certain schools or departments because of the support the school has for their particular line of research.

"Schools like Harvard and Princeton made commitments to African American studies very early. I think these scholars want to be in a place that's made a major commitment to their field of scholarship," said Ann Marcus, director of NYU's Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy. "In this case, although one person might be a philosopher, one a historian … many are interested in African American themes."

Both Marcus and Amkpa said there were positive and negative aspects of having a cluster of elite black scholars.

"I think this is a real dilemma for higher education, because since there are few scholars in certain areas, you want them to be distributed across the country, especially at institutions that have more emphasis on teaching," Marcus said. "On the other hand, what's best for scholars and their scholarship is to have a certain synergy with their colleagues."

Amkpa said: "It's a shame, but this is what happens because the private sector outcompetes the public sector."

Spencer Magloff is a staff writer.