American historian and academic administrator
Ben Vinson III is an American historian, currently serving as the 18th president of Howard University since September 2023. He served as provost of Case Western Reserve University from 2018 to 2023 and as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University from 2013 to 2018.
Biography
Early life and education
Vinson is originally from Rapid City, South Dakota, where his father served in the United States Air Force.[1] He received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.[2]
Career
Vinson served on the faculties of Barnard College and Pennsylvania State University before joining Johns Hopkins University as a professor of history and served as the Herbert Baxter Adams Professor of Latin American History and vice dean of centers, interdisciplinary studies and graduate education. He also helped found Johns Hopkins' Center for Africana Studies and served as its founding director.[3][4]
In 2013, Vinson was appointed as dean of George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.[5][6] As dean of GWU's Columbian College, he led the integration of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design into the college and opened a $275 million interdisciplinary science and engineering building.[7] He also spearheaded diversity initiatives including the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute that provides funding for high school juniors from their undergraduate to post-doctoral studies.[1][8]
Reception
Vinson has been chairman of the board of the National Humanities Center since 2018.[9][10] He is also a vice president of the American Historical Association[11] and president of the Conference on Latin American History.[12][13]
Vinson's scholarship focused on the African presence in colonial Mexico and has authored books on the African American experiences in Mexico and Afro-Mexican experiences in the United States.[5] His book Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico, won the 2019 Howard Cline Book Prize in Mexican History for the best work on Mexico by the Latin American Studies Association.[14]
Personal Life
Family
Vinson currently resides in Solon, Ohio, and is married to Yolanda Fortenberry. He has three children, Allyson, Ben, and Brandon Vinson.
References