2002 Honorary Degree

Darlene Clark Hine Doctor Of Letters Darlene Clark Hine has distinguished herself as an historian and an engaged individual who has an informed and enlivened understanding of the past and present. Darlene Clark Hine Currently a professor of history at Michigan State University, Dr. Hine spent 13 years in five different positions at Purdue University between 1974 and 1987 and remains a close friend of the history department. Born in Morley, Mo., and raised in Chicago, Dr. Hine attended Roosevelt University in Chicago, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1968. She then earned a master’s degree in 1970 from Kent State University and followed that up with a doctorate in American history, also from Kent State, in 1975. In between, Dr. Hine began her teaching career as an assistant professor at South Carolina State College for two years before joining the Purdue faculty in 1974 as an assistant professor. She became an associate professor of history in 1979 and a full professor of history in 1985. She also served as interim director of the Africana Studies and Research Center (1978-79) and as vice provost (1981-85). Dr. Hine left Purdue in 1987 to become a John A. Hannah professor of history at Michigan State, where she is now director of the Comparative Black History doctorate program. She has been a visiting distinguished professor on five occasions, at Arizona State University in 1985, University of Delaware in 1989-90, University of South Carolina in 1996, Roosevelt University in 1996 and Northwestern University in 1997. She is the current president of the Organization of American Historians. Dr. Hine is considered an expert on African-American history, particularly on black women's history, having edited or written 25 books and parts of 19 journals. She has been involved with 33 book chapters, proceedings, newsletters and short monographs. She has given more than 115 lectures in the last 15 years. In 1990, her book "Black Women in White" received several awards, including being named outstanding book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. Dr. Hine has received many honors including the Otto Wirth Alumni Award for Outstanding Scholarship from Roosevelt University and a special achievement award from the Kent State University Alumni Association. She also has been awarded prestigious grant support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation.