Barbara Savage, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and a professor emerita of Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, has been honored with the 2024 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She was recognized for her latest work, Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar (Yale University Press, 2024). Born in 1905, Dr. Tate was the first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford in England and the first African-American woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University.
During her 25-year tenure with the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Savage taught graduate and undergraduate courses in twentieth-century African American history, the history of American religious and social reform movements, the history of the relationship between media and politics, and Black women’s political and intellectual history. She also held several leadership roles, including inaugural chair of the department of Africana studies, interim director and faculty associate director of the Center for Africana Studies, and graduate and undergraduate chair.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Savage served as director of federal relations in the Office of the General Counsel at Yale University. Before transitioning her career to academia, she worked in Washington, D.C. as a congressional staff member and served on the staff of the Children’s Defense Fund.
In addition to her most recent book, Dr. Savage is the author of Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion (Belknap Press, 2008) and Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
Dr. Savage received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, juris doctorate from Georgetown University, and a doctorate in history from Yale University.