When Vincent Brown went on the job market eight years ago, he almost took his films--a few short comedies, nothing academic--off his CV for fear of not looking like a “serious” scholar. “It’s a good thing I did” leave them on, the professor of history and of African and African American studies says now, because the search committee at Harvard viewed this multimedia experience as an asset. Indeed, these earlier films laid the groundwork for one of his two major academic projects to date: Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, a documentary that he produced based on his own research, aired on PBS earlier this year and has won numerous film-festival and academic awards. The late Melville Herskovits, a Northwestern University anthropologist whose books include The Myth of the Negro Past, documented cultural continuities between African societies and slaves in the Americas, and helped change the notion, popular in academia at the time, that there was nothing of worth to be found in African culture. Brown says the “gorgeous” footage Herskovits shot (of dances, music-making, and agricultural techniques, for example) made film the right medium for telling this story. His second project is in a more conventional format: a book on the meaning of death, and the rituals surrounding it, in the society of Jamaican slaves and slaveowners. Brown’s next book project aims to connect slave revolts in the Americas with concurrent political developments in Africa, following in the footsteps of Herskovits, whose name is still little-known despite his seminal contribution to the discipline of African American studies. He is, says Brown, “one of the most important scholars you never heard of.”
Vincent Brown
Meet a multimedia scholar of slavery
You might also like
A New Chapter for Harvard Arts
The Office for the Arts turns 50, and its longtime director steps down.
Education School Announces Interim Dean
Nonie Lesaux will serve as dean during search
Harvard Students form Pro-Palestine Encampment
Protesters set up camp in Harvard Yard
Most popular
More to explore
What is the Best Breakfast and Lunch in Harvard Square?
The cafés and restaurants of Harvard Square sure to impress for breakfast and lunch.
How Homelessness is a Public Health Crisis
Homelessness has surged in the United States, with devastating effects on the public health system.
Portfolio Diet May Reduce Long-Term Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke, Harvard Researchers Find
A little-known diet improves cardiovascular health through several distinct mechanisms.