Ben Vinson III, Ph.D., a distinguished historian, was the 18th president of Howard University. He is also President of the American Historical Association and Past President of the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH). Prior to the presidency at Howard, Dr. Vinson served as provost and executive vice president of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Vinson’s scholarly work centers on the African diaspora with a focus on Latin America. As an award-winning historian, former editor of The Americas, and author or co-author of eight books and dozens of articles, his latest book project, “Frank Etheridge: Jazz Age Musician of the African Diaspora,”chronicles Etheridge’s experience playing in interracial orchestras while traveling abroad during America’s Jim Crow era. His book, Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico, won the 2019 Howard F. Cline book prize in Mexican History from the Latin American Studies Association. The book was initially conceived at Bernard Baylin’s Atlantic History Seminar at Harvard. Nearing its final stages, the book’s findings were workshopped in the Nathan I. Huggins Lecture Series at the Hutchins Center. Educated at Dartmouth College and Columbia University, Dr. Vinson previously served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, Vice-Dean for Centers, Interdisciplinary Programs and Graduate Education at Johns Hopkins University, and Director of the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as a faculty member at Barnard College and Penn State University.
Dr. Vinson is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Antiquarian Society. He has served on several boards, including the American Council of Education, Fulbright, National Humanities Alliance, and the National Humanities Center, among others.