African American Studies Director named inaugural Whipper Distinguished Professor
March 16, 2023The College of Charleston has named Anthony Greene, director of the African American Studies Program, as its inaugural Lucille Simmons Whipper Distinguished Professor.
This new professorship was created in an effort to attract and retain top talent from historically underserved groups and to identify faculty members of color at the associate-professor level who are at a point in their career to work toward promotion to full professor so that they may have the time to complete the work necessary for promotion. It is part of an initiative based on one of the cross-cutting themes of the College’s 10-year strategic plan, Tradition & Transformation: the value of diversity, equity and inclusion to make the institution more welcoming to all and more competitive in a changing cultural landscape.
“Representative Lucille Whipper was a change agent not only on our campus, but in the State of South Carolina,” says College of Charleston President Andrew T. Hsu. “She was a force of nature. I am proud that we can honor her memory and celebrate her legacy through this distinguished professorship. Anthony Greene is a tremendous scholar and leader on our campus, and I am so pleased that he will be the inaugural recipient of this appointment.”
Greene, who specializes in race-ethnic relations and cultural and ethnic identity, joined the College’s African American Studies Program in 2012 and also teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He received the Black History Intercollegiate Consortium’s MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award in 2019 and the College’s Outstanding Faculty ExCEL Award for the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs in 2015. But he says receiving the Whipper Distinguished Professorship is especially meaningful.
Providing opportunities to engage with the College’s provost and president on mutually agreed-upon special assignments in order to develop leadership skills and knowledge of higher education industry, the Whipper Distinguished Professorship is a three-year appointment that includes an annual salary supplement, an annual travel stipend and a course release (funds allocated to support course release to home school/department).