The Center for Engaged Scholarship’s board is pleased to announce that it has selected Keisha N. Blain, a full professor of history and Africana Studies at Brown University to succeed founder Fred Block as CES’s next President. Her term begins in Fall 2026.
A nationally recognized historian, author, and public intellectual, Dr. Blain will lead the organization in advancing its mission to support innovative scholarship and foster meaningful connections between academic research and public life.
The board is very impressed by her distinguished scholarship, her track record of launching and finding funding for new initiatives, her commitment to CES’s mission of supporting emerging graduate students committed to community-engaged scholarship, and her deep roots in the African American scholarly community.
Dr. Blain is the author of three acclaimed books: Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights (2025); Until I am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America (2021); Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018); as well as five edited volumes that have helped shape contemporary conversations in Black history, women’s and gender studies, and global politics.
Dr. Blain is a founder and former president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She has also mentored numerous graduate students and built a distinguished record as a public intellectual. Her public engagement includes a three-year stint as a columnist for MSNBC and service as an editor for the Washington Post’s “Made by History” section, where she helped bring historical scholarship into broader public conversations.
In her application for the presidency, Dr. Blain articulated a broad vision for her work: “I view the current political climate—including the rise of racism and white supremacy, xenophobia, and transphobia; the complete disregard for participatory democracy; the abandonment of free speech; the targeting of progressive and Leftist activists; and the growth of anti-DEI sentiments—as an urgent call.”
The board looks forward to working with Dr. Blain and the graduate-level scholars that we support to meet the challenges of this time.