AR-v.5 (1-27):Layout 1 - Hutchins Center - Harvard University

Group was convened for the first time in January2006 and included the nation’s top scientists, socialscientists, and historians who discussed thelatest research in genetics and how to effectivelyuse historical and social contexts to understandthe origins of the Africans who survived the MiddlePassage in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to theUnited States. This past year’s meeting includedpresentations by Marc Bauchet (Max Planck Institutefor Evolutionary Anthropology), David Eltis (EmoryUniversity), Peter Forster (University of Cambridge),Duana Fullwiley (Harvard University), LindaHeywood (Boston University), Kenneth K. Kidd(Yale University), and John K. Thornton (BostonUniversity).The Timbuktu Library ProjectDirector: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.In 1998, the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute launchedthe Timbuktu Library Project whose purpose is thepreservation and restoration of the lost Libraryof Timbuktu. Consisting of approximately 50,000volumes covering topics such as geometry, law,astronomy, and chemistry, and dating to the latesixteenth century and before, these importantdocuments are being catalogued, and have recentlygained new interest within the academy. Underthe auspices of the Timbuktu Library Project, thosemanuscripts are being catalogued. As that workprogresses, the Institute is seeking fundingto photograph and digitize the contents of thecollection, and, in the case of especially importantworks, to have them translated. The TimbuktuLibrary Project has been funded by the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation.Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseDirector: David Eltis (Emory University)The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, originallypublished as a CD-ROM in 1999, is availablein a new and greatly expanded format on an openaccess website located at www.slavevoyages.org.It includes detailed information on 35,000transatlantic slave trading voyages that occurredbetween 1526 and 1867.Trans-Saharan Slave Trade Working GroupDirector: Wole SoyinkaUnder the direction of Wole Soyinka, 1986 NobelLaureate in Literature and fellow at the W. E. B.Du Bois Institute for African and African AmericanResearch at Harvard, the Trans-Saharan SlaveTrade Working Group is engaged with locating textsand images that relate to the encounter of theArab and Islamic world – including cultural, trading,political, and slaving documents – with theAfrican world.W. E. B. Du Bois SocietyFounders: Jacqueline O. Cooke Rivers andReverend Eugene C. RiversDirectors: Jacqueline O. Cooke Rivers andDell M. HamiltonThe W. E. B. Du Bois Society is an academicand cultural enrichment program, designed toengage secondary school students of African descentwho attend academically competitive public,parochial, and independent institutions. Hosted bythe Du Bois Institute and the Ella J. Baker Housein Dorchester, the Du Bois Society provides youngpeople with an opportunity to develop study skillsand teamwork as they reflect on readings selected byprominent Harvard professors. This year’s lecturesand readings with noted scholars Henry LouisGates, Jr., Glenda Carpio, Marla Frederick, KimberyDa Costa, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.Welfare, Children, and Families:A Three-City StudyDirector: William Julius WilsonWilliam Julius Wilson is working in collaborationwith colleagues at other major institutions to