Our department is pleased to welcome Dr. Matthew Johnson, who joins us this year as the James Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Civil Rights and Social Justice. He earned his doctorate in the field of American History at Temple University, where he recently completed a dissertation entitled “The Origins of Diversity: Managing Race at the University of Michigan, 1963-2006.” This study offers a view of the role of institutions and the people who managed them in the fight for racial justice. Focusing on the University of Michigan as a case study, it explores the role of administrators in rethinking admissions and recruiting policies, curriculum, counseling programs, and, in the process, creating new programs to facilitate racial equity and address racial tension.
Dr. Johnson is currently teaching courses at UMW on “The Long Civil Rights Movement” and “Race, Crime, and Punishment.”
