Noel Ignatiev, visiting professor and holder of the Edward Said Chair in American Studies, joined AUB’s Center for American Studies and Research in September. He comes from Massachusetts College of Art and Design where he has been on the faculty of the Liberal Arts Department since 1999.
Ignatiev obtained his master’s and PhD degrees from Harvard University without having completed a bachelor’s degree. On scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania in1961, he dropped out before graduation. “It was interfering with my education (in the words of Mark Twain),” explained Ignatiev, who wanted to “learn more about aspects of practical life” like day-to-day living for the working classes, especially in the industrial sector. Hence Ignatiev pursued metal working for twenty three years.
When the machinist and electrical repairman was laid off, along with many others during the 1980s’ economic downturn, a friend, a Harvard graduate, suggested he apply to the one-year education graduate program at that university. An avid social activist, civil rights advocate, and editor of a small journal on social injustice, Ignatiev was highly recommended. “Harvard, very occasionally, likes to admit people with unusual backgrounds, especially into the Education Department, which strives to improve our world,” said Ignatiev.
Ignatiev received his master’s in education in 1985 and his PhD in the history of American civilization from Harvard in 1994. He is the author of How the Irish Became White, recently reissued as a Routledge Classic; coeditor of Race Traitor, winner of the 1996 American Book Award; editor of Lesson of the Hour: Wendell Phillips on Abolition and Strategy; and author of 27 articles. He has been a fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and a Regents Fellow at the University of California-Riverside.
This semester, Ignatiev is teaching three undergraduate courses: Introduction to American Studies, Race in America, and US Civil War. In the spring, he will give a course on twentieth-century America. The father of two, Ignatiev finds AUB students “conscientious, hard-working, and thoughtful.”
He likes to go fishing, walks every day, and enjoys listening to classical, blues, and jazz music. An avid reader, he has currently been reading about Lebanese history.