Hutchins Center for African and African American Research facts for kids

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research is a special place at Harvard University. It's often called the Hutchins Center. This center helps people learn about the history and culture of people of African descent from all over the world. It also helps researchers work together and shares important information with everyone. It started way back in 1975 as the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute. In 2013, it became the Hutchins Center.

What the Hutchins Center Does

The Hutchins Center supports important research about the history and culture of people of African descent. These are people whose families originally came from Africa, no matter where they live now. The center helps experts work together. It also tries to teach more people about these topics.

As of December 2020, a famous professor named Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the director of the Center.

A Look at History

The center first opened in May 1975. It was called the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute. This makes it the oldest research center focused on the history and culture of Africans and African Americans.

It was named after William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. He was the first African American to earn a special advanced degree, called a Ph.D., from Harvard University in 1895. The institute was created to help students writing their final research papers about African American studies.

In September 2013, the center was renamed the Hutchins Center. This was to honor a very generous gift of $15 million from the Hutchins Family Foundation. This foundation was started by Glenn Hutchins. The W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute is still a part of the Hutchins Center.

Cool Projects and Publications

The Hutchins Center helps create and share many interesting projects.

• It publishes a magazine called Transition Magazine.
• It is also connected to the Du Bois Review. This journal is edited by Professor Lawrence D. Bobo from Harvard.

The African American National Biography Project is a big project. The Hutchins Center works on this with Oxford University Press. It creates biographies, or life stories, of important African Americans.

The center also helped start the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership. This center is at University College London. It has an online database that anyone can use for free. This database helps people learn about the history of slavery and its lasting effects.

The W. E. B. Du Bois Medal

Since the year 2000, the Hutchins Center has given out a special award. It's called the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal. This medal is considered the highest honor from Harvard University in the field of African and African American studies. It celebrates people who have done amazing work in this area.

Other Institutes and Programs

The Hutchins Center includes or supports many other research groups and projects. These include:

• The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute, which studies the history of hip-hop music and culture.
• The Afro-Latin American Research Institute, which focuses on people of African descent in Latin America.
• The Image of the Black Archive & Library, which collects images and information about Black people throughout history.
• The Project on Race & Gender in Science & Medicine, which looks at how race and gender affect science and medicine.
• The History Design Studio, which explores new ways to present history.
• The Jazz Research Initiative, which studies the history of jazz music.

The center is also home to the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art. This is an art gallery, often called the Cooper Gallery. It shows beautiful art from Africa and by African American artists.