The Light of Knowledge: Lessons from the Life of a Black Woman Scholar
Barbara Savage
Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Professor Emerita of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Please join us for an illustrated discussion of the life, work, and travels of Professor Merze Tate (1905-1996). An expert in international relations at Howard University, Tate trained at Oxford and Harvard and broke barriers in her quest to become a scholar in what she aptly called “a sex and race discriminating world.” Her educational struggles mirror those of her contemporary, Bryn Mawr alumna, Enid Cook ’31. An intrepid solo traveler, Tate circled the globe twice, lived in India in 1950 as a Fulbright scholar, and journeyed to Africa. She shared her expertise in classrooms, in print, and communities. Tate endowed scholarships that still help students become “citizens of the world.”
Copies of her most recent book, Merze Tate: the Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar (Yale, 2024) will be available for purchase at the College bookstore.
Biography
Barbara D. Savage is an historian and the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2018-2019, she was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of three books, including Merze Tate: the Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar (Yale, 2024). Savage holds a doctorate from Yale, a law degree from Georgetown University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.
Advanced Reading Not Required.
Copies of her book will be available for purchase.
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