Correction appended.

The University recently announced thee hiring of two new professors as part of a cluster hire around the African Diaspora, while the Education program and African and Afro-American Studies department look to fill an opening under the Florence Levy Kay Fellowship, a two-year post-doctoral fellowship that rotates between different departments and programs for each appointment. Both new professors and the post-doctoral fellow will begin teaching in fall 2014.

AAAS and the Women's and Gender Studies program hired Jasmine Johnson, who recently completed a post-doctoral program at Northwestern University. Greg Childs, who earned his Ph.D. from New York University and is currently on the faculty of George Washington University, will join the History department.

Johnson will teach one course in AAAS and one course in WGS each semester, according to Prof. Wendy Cadge (SOC), chair of the WGS program. According to Cadge, the details for Johnson's WGS course have not been finalized. Cadge wrote of the hire in an email to the Justice: "It influences our program tremendously-mostly by diversifying the classes we can offer."

Johnson described her work as "an attempt to understand the politics of African diasporic movement" in an email to the Justice. While her work focuses on West African dance, Johnson wrote that she is also interested in movement in general. "How does movement shape racialized and gendered identities? I draw from the African diaspora, black feminist, and dance theories in answering these questions," she wrote.

Johnson wrote that she looks forward to sharing in "Brandeis' intellectual and artistic life." As a professor in both AAAS and WGS, she wrote about her excitement to be able to offer different cross-listed and interdisciplinary courses, particularly in the area of dance, where she hopes to work with the School of Creative Arts. She is also excited to join the Brandeis community, writing that the "African Diaspora cluster hire indicates Brandeis' commitment to AAAS and WGS. It means that Brandeis understand[s] these intellectual communities to be essential to the mission of the university" and that it shows Brandeis is committed to interdisciplinary work.

Greg Childs' work focuses on the history of the African Diaspora to Latin America. According to Prof. Jane Kamensky (HIST), chair of the History department, Childs' "work on Brazil, urban history, the African Diaspora, and the global eighteenth century will lead to crucial new course offerings." Kamensky wrote in an email to the Justice about her excitement at the interdisciplinary possibilities of Childs' appointment, writing that "Childs is poised to be a transformative teacher."

Childs did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The AAAS department and the Education program are also looking to fill a post-doctoral Kay Fellowship position, Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) wrote in an email to the Justice. This year, the Kay Fellowship will fit under the African Diaspora cluster hire, as AAAS and Education seek a specialist in urban education. This year's Kay Fellow candidates are Derron Wallace, Aaminah Norris and Tess Bundy. All of the candidates are visiting Brandeis to speak about their work: Wallace gave a lecture yesterday titled "Bad Blacks and Better Blacks?: Exploring the Role of Black Cultural Capital in the Educational Experiences of Afro-Caribbean Youth in London and New York;" Norris will give a lecture titled "Make Matters: Teaching and Learning Literacies and Identities in Urban Schools" this Thursday and Bundy will give a lecture titled "'The Schools Are Killing Our Kids!:' The African American Fight for Racial Democracy in the Boston Public Schools" on Tuesday, April 8.

This African Diaspora cluster hire initiative was formed to fill an area of study not present in the University and to bring more diversity to course offerings, according to the Jan. 14 issue of the Justice.

Editor's Note: The online version of this article has been edited to clarify Greg Childs' education.  He received his Ph.D. from New York University and is currently on the faculty at George Washington University.  He did not receive his Ph.D. from George Washington University, as the article previously stated.
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