Distributed April 12, 2002
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Mark Nickel

Evelyn Hu-DeHart named director of Center for Race and Ethnicity

Evelyn Hu-DeHart, currently professor and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado–Boulder, has been named professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She will begin her duties July 1, 2002.

PROVIDENCE — Evelyn Hu-DeHart, professor and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado–Boulder, has been named director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University and has been appointed to the University’s faculty as a tenured professor of history. She will begin her work at Brown July 1, 2002, succeeding William S. Simmons, the Center’s interim director.

“Professor Hu-DeHart is a productive and passionate scholar with a strong record of academic administration in the ethnic studies area,” said Brown President Ruth J. Simmons, who announced the appointment at the April faculty meeting. “I am confident that her leadership and vision will encourage the development of ethnic studies at Brown, and I look forward to her arrival this summer.”

As director of the Center for Race and Ethnicity, Hu-DeHart will provide academic leadership for the Center’s programs, including oversight of the ethnic studies concentration. She will also be responsible for enhancing the Center’s intellectual and financial resources and for encouraging and coordinating its academic activities. The director’s duties also include teaching.

“I am honored and pleased to join the Brown faculty and look forward to collaborating with and learning from my new colleagues in many departments and programs,” Hu-DeHart said. “I am equally excited about teaching and mentoring Brown students, whose engagement with liberal education and social justice has always drawn me to this unique campus.”

A graduate of Stanford University (B.A., political science with honors, 1968), Hu-DeHart earned her Ph.D. in history at the University of Texas–Austin in 1976, specializing in the history of Latin America. She began her teaching career with part-time appointments at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City (1971-72) and the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (1972-73), then joined the history faculty of Washington University in St. Louis in 1973, advancing to associate professor with tenure. She moved to the City University of New York in 1985.

In 1988, Hu-DeHart began her current position as director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America at the University of Colorado–Boulder, serving also as professor and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies since 1996.

A wide-ranging scholar, Hu-DeHart has published studies on the Yaqui Indians of Mexico and Arizona, Chinese immigration to the United States, Caribbean and Latin America, women and minorities in higher education, and the politics of multiculturalism. She speaks several languages (including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and her native Chinese, both Mandarin and Cantonese) and has published works in English, Spanish, Mayan and Chinese. Her current research interest is on the Chinese diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hu-DeHart’s professional activities include many consultancies on issues of diversity and multiculturalism, particularly on the experiences of Asian Americans and women of color. She has testified before the U.S Commission on Civil Rights, served as a panelist on national teleconferences about race and higher education, and appeared as a television and radio commentator on Latin American and Central American affairs.

“Evelyn Hu-DeHart has given shape and substance to the field of ethnic studies not just at the University of Colorado, but nationally,” said Cynthia Garcia Coll, chair of the Education Department and director of the Center for Human Development, who chaired the search committee. “Her vision of ethnic studies at Brown – its direction, scope and possibilities – is absolutely congruent with the faculty’s vision. We are very excited about her arrival here.”

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