Jean Herskovits


Jean Frances Herskovits was a research professor of history at the State University of New York at Purchase specializing in African history and politics. Herskovits taught at Brown University, Swarthmore College, City College of the City University of New York and Columbia University. She held a D. Phil. in African history from Oxford University.

Early life and education

Jean Frances Herskovits was born in Evanston, Illinois, on May 20, 1935, to anthropologists Melville J. Herskovits and Frances Shapiro Herskovits. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in 1956, and her PhD from Oxford University in 1960, writing her dissertation on freed slaves who returned to Africa and the Lagos Colony.

Career

Jean Herskovits taught at Brown University, Swarthmore College, The City College of New York, and Columbia University. She was a professor at the State University of New York, Purchase, since 1977. Herskovits' thesis, "A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The Sierra Leonians in Yoruba," was written on a 1958 research trip to Nigeria and published in 1965. She was a director of United Bank for Africa from 1998 to 2005 where she also chaired the Board of Trustees of the . She also served as head of the Nigeria reinvestment project of Citizens Energy Corporation and from 2001 to 2008 was a member of Conoco Phillips’ Nigeria advisory council.
She wrote many articles about Nigeria in publications such as Foreign Policy and the New York Times.

Death

Herskovits died on February 5, 2019.