| 1 | Name: | Dr. Cornel West | |
| Institution: | Union Theological Seminary | ||
| Year Elected: | 1997 | ||
| Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
| Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1953 | ||
Cornel West is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor at Union Theological Seminary, having previously held the position Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University until 2021. In 1984, he went to Yale Divinity School in what eventually became a joint appointment in American Studies. In 1988, he moved to Princeton University where he became a Professor of Religion and Director of the Program in African-American Studies. In 1994 he accepted an appointment as Professor of African-American Studies at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Divinity School. West taught one of the University's most popular courses, an introductory class to African-American Studies. In 1998, he was appointed the first Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. West utilized this new position to teach not only in African-American studies, but in Divinity, Religion, and Philosophy. West left Harvard after a widely-publicized dispute with then-President Lawrence Summers in 2002. That year, West returned to Princeton, where he continued to teach in African-American Studies. He remained at Princeton until July 2012, when he became Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and moved to the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York where he had started as an Assistant Professor after receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Cornel West remained at Union Theological Seminary until his return to Harvard in 2016. Dr. West's teaching and research interests include philosophy of religion and cultural criticism, and his many intellectual contributions draw from such diverse traditions as Marxism, pragmatism, transcendentalism and the African American Baptist Church. Perhaps more than anyone else, he has restored the full presence of the spoken voice to the discourse of contemporary philosophy: the rhythmic structure of the performed word, the philosophically performed word. He is the author of books such as Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity; The American Evasion of Philosophy; The Ethical Dimension of Marxist Thought; Prophetic Thought in Post Modern Times; Race Matters; and Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism as well as the spoken-word recording "Sketches of My Culture." A brilliant thinker and speaker, Dr. West maintains a truly international focus and perspective on the enormously complex issues of race, ethnic identity and class. | |||