Posted on January 19, 2024
Prosser Gifford was the first Professor of African History at Yale University. His impact and influence on the development of African history and cultures in the United States and throughout the English-speaking world be impossible to overstate because his vision of inclusion far out-stripped the technologies available to him at the time. It is only now — with the emergence of digital technology at all levels of teaching across the world — that the legacy of Prosser Gifford’s insights can be more fully appreciated and effectively integrated into teaching to promote global understanding.
Throughout his long and distinguished academic career at Oxford, Harvard Law School, Yale University and Amherst College and his subsequent work in Washington, D.C. at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars and then as Director of Scholarly Programs and the Founding Director of The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress Prosser Gifford encouraged and inspired all those with whom he worked to expand their understanding of and humane compassion for one another.
It is in this sense that the legacy of Prosser Gifford continues to evolve as digital technologies facilitate new forms of international collaborative research and teaching in history and the humanities across the globe.
See related:
- Prosser Gifford – A Memorial Celebration
- The Africa Map Circle – a brief introduction.
- Learning & Teaching World History in a Time of Global Crisis
- The Africa Map Circle – Introduction & Digital Resource Directory
- From Gallery to Reality (… and Back): The Display of Art and the Art of Display in the Digital Age
- Curating a Fractured Past: The Role of Museums, Maps, Manuscripts, Prints, Rare Books, Photos, Artifacts, Literature & the Arts in Embracing Our Common Humanity on a Finite Planet
- Recovering A Looted Past ~ “Repatriating” African History: Artifacts, Technology & New Narratives
- Further sources on Museums, Libraries, the Humanities and Digital Technology