Social-scientist pair returning to Harvard

September 14, 2007|Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE - A husband-and-wife team of social scientists who left Harvard University three years ago after one was denied tenure is returning to the university's Department of African and African American Studies, officials said yesterday.

Marcyliena Morgan and Lawrence Bobo left for Stanford University in 2003 after Morgan was denied tenure under former president Lawrence H. Summers.

She will return to Harvard in January as a tenured professor, said Evelyn Higginbotham, chairwoman of the department.

"Tenure was the issue for her leaving, and that has been resolved," Higginbotham said.

Tenure was approved by interim president Derek Bok in May and backed by president Drew Faust, she said.

"We are really ecstatic, because we feel like we are not just welcoming new scholars to the department, but that beloved colleagues have returned to us," she said.

Morgan is a linguistic anthropologist and authority on global hip-hop culture who will concentrate on hip-hip's role in AIDS prevention, Higginbotham said.

Bobo will have a joint appointment in sociology.