Franklin W. Knight (born 1942) is a Jamaican historian of Latin America and the Caribbean. He is an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, where he was the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History from 1993 to 2014 and director of the Centre for Africana Studies. He was awarded a Gold

Musgrave Medal The Musgrave Medal is an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature.Webster, Valerie J. (2000), ''Awards, Honors & Prizes, Volume 2'', Gale Group, , p. 447. Originally conceived in 1889 ...

for literature in 2013. He joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in 1973 and in 1978 became the first black faculty member at the university to gain

academic tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for Just cause (employment law), cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic ten ...

. Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Knight was assistant professor of history at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

. Knight was born in the parish of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, and attended

Calabar High School Calabar High School is an All-boys school, all-male secondary school in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. It was established by the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1912 for the children of Baptist ministers. It was named after the Kalabari Kingdom ...

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. He gained his degree in history from the

University of the West Indies, Mona A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

in 1964 and his PhD from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. From 1998 to 2000, he served as the President of the

Latin American Studies Association The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the ...

. In 2007, Knight was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from his alma mater, the University of the West Indies.

Selected bibliography

* '' Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography'', co-edited with

Henry Louis Gates Jr Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950), popularly known by his childhood nickname "Skip", is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of t ...

(

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2016) * ''Contemporary Caribbean Cultures and Societies in a Global Context'', co-edited with Teresita Martinez-Vergne (2005). * ''Las Casas: An Introduction, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies'' (Hackett, 2003) * ''The Slave Societies of the Caribbean'' (Macmillan, 1997) * ''The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism'' (Oxford, 1978; 2nd edition, revised 1990) * ''The Modern Caribbean'', co-edited with Colin A. Palmer * ''The Modern Caribbean'', co-edited with Colin A. Palmer (

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

, 1989) * ''Africa and the Caribbean: Legacies of a Link'', co-edited with Margaret Crahan (Johns Hopkins, 1979) * ''The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism'' (Oxford, 1978; 2nd edition, revised 1990, 3rd edition revised, 2012) * ''The African Dimension of Latin American Societies'' (Macmillan, 1974) * ''Slave Society in Cuba during the Nineteenth Century'' (Wisconsin, 1970)

References

1942 births Living people Jamaican academics Jamaican historians Johns Hopkins University faculty People educated at Calabar High School Recipients of the Musgrave Medal University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni {{US-historian-stub