The Untimely Passing of African American & African Diaspora Studies Prof. Steven Gregory

Gregory was the inaugural Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.

By
Bashar Makhay
September 14, 2021

The African American & African Diaspora Studies Department and the Department of Anthropology announced the untimely passing of Dr. Steven Gregory on September 13, 2021.

Gregory was the inaugural Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. He shared his boisterous enthusiasm with students, colleagues, the university, and the world. His extraordinary work in Anthropology on the intersection of race, class, gender, and urban-based social movements unfolded in numerous books and articles, notably the volumes Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community, Santería in New York City: A Study in Cultural Resistance, and The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic, which received the Society for Urban Anthropology’s Anthony Leeds Prize, and the Gordon K. Lewis Book Prize, from the Caribbean Studies Association. His recently completed The Valley & the Acropolis: Power, Spatiality, and the Politics of Knowledge is forthcoming. 

Messages honoring Gregory's legacy have been shared by numerous colleagues, community leaders, activists, and former students. A few of them can be found below: