Evelynn M. Hammonds

Evelynn M. Hammonds (born 1953) is an American feminist and scholar. She is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of History of Science and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College. The intersections of race, gender, science and medicine are prominent research topics across her published works. Hammonds received degrees in engineering and physics. Before getting her PhD, in the History of Science at Harvard she was a computer programmer. She began her teaching career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, later moving to Harvard. In 2008, Hammonds was appointed dean, the first African-American and the first woman to head the College. She returned to full-time teaching in 2013.

Hammonds was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1953. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was a postal worker. She grew up in the time right after segregation and dealt with the many racial issues of this time throughout her childhood. Hammonds attended public school in the South, and in 1976 earned her first two degrees. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics (1976) from Spelman College. She also earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1976 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She then went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning a master's degree in physics in 1980.

She went to work as a software engineer for five years. However, she did not enjoy her work environment and thus returned to academic life. In 1993 Hammonds earned a doctorate degree in the history of science from Harvard University. At that time, MIT also invited Hammonds to teach. While she was there, she was a founding director of MIT's center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine. She also helped organize the first national academic conference for black female scholars, Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name 1894-1994.

In 2002 she returned to Harvard and joined as a professor in the departments of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies. She received the title of Dean at Harvard College in 2008 and was the 4th black woman to receive tenure within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Hammonds was also named senior vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity. Harvard's announcement of her appointment referred to her role advising the provost and "encourag[ing] the recruitment and advancement of outstanding women and underrepresented minority faculty"

Research

Hammonds' research focuses on the intersection of science, medicine, and human races. Many of her works analyze gender and races in the perspective of science and medicine. She is concerned with how science examines human variation through race. Hammonds mainly studies the time period of the 17th century to present while focusing on history of diseases and African American feminism. In 1997, Hammond's article "Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence" was published in Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader. In this article Hammond focuses on the intersection of black female sexuality and AIDS. She argues that black female sexuality (from the 19th century to present) was formed in exact opposition to that of white women. She argues that, historically, many black feminists have failed to develop a concept of black female sexuality. Hammonds then discusses the limitations of black women’s sexuality and how that affects black women with AIDS.

Hammonds believes black women are capable of more than their socially acceptable definition of their own sexuality, but yet they are unable to express it. This is a consequence of black women being unable to define sexuality in their own terms. She dates the earliest records of these definitions in the early 19th century with Sarah Bartmann as the "Hottentot's Venus". This was a black woman who was put on display and seen as vulgar because she had larger anatomical body parts than those of her white counterparts. In more recent years, black woman exemplify the notion of an uncontrolled sexuality. This was largely in part due to the comparison of black women to Victorian white women. Black women were seen as hypersexual. White society thought that black female sexuality undermined the morals and values of their society

During the late 19th early 20th century black women reformers were set on developing a new definition of black female sexuality. This new definition was an image of a super moral black female to align itself with the super moral Victorian women. These black women were set on deconstructing the hypersexual notion of the black female sexuality. Hammonds argues that by silencing the voice of the black female, the reformers oppressed black women without deconstructing the notion of the hypersexual connotation.

Hammonds states that in order for black women to be free from oppression, black women must reclaim their sexuality. The definition of black female sexuality was always defined by an outside group looking in, first by white males and then by white females. Black females must define their own sexuality in order to overcome oppression. She states that this repeated silence has become a notion of "invisibility" to describe black females' lives. Even women with prestige in academia are still under invisibility when they are told what issues they can and cannot lecture about. Hammonds continues to extend the "invisibility" of black women to the field of medicine and science. Black women have been oppressed for so many years that negative stereotypes have been formed about black women and now to black women with AIDS. These stereotypes have created a void between black women with AIDS and society. The public continues to hold black women up to the stereotype of hypersexual and black women with AIDS are forced to deal with this oppression.

Publications

Hammonds most recent publications include: "Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They?," "Straw men and their followers: The return of biological race," "The Use of Race Variables in Genetic Studies of Complex Traits and the Goal of Reducing Health Disparities: A Transdisciplinary Perspective," and "Conversation on Feminist Science Studies."

E-mail search scandal at Harvard

In March 2013, Hammonds and Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael D. Smith announced that they had ordered a search of the email records of Harvard administrators in order to identify whether individuals had leaked information to the media regarding the university's investigation of the 2012 Harvard cheating scandal. Hammonds and Smith had asked the administrators whether or not they leaked any information to anybody, in response to The Crimson publishing a description of an internal email regarding the cheating scandal and athletes' eligibility. No administrators came forward; Hammonds and Smith informed these administrators that there would need to be additional investigation. In response, Hammonds ordered an email search and identified the individual responsible for disseminating these internal email communications.

In April, Hammonds announced that her earlier statement had not been complete as she had failed to recollect a second email search, this time of the account of the specific Allston Burr Resident Dean responsible for the leak. Hammonds did not inform Smith of this second search, violating the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' email privacy policy.

The Harvard Crimson called on Hammonds to resign. Then, on May 28, Hammonds announced that she would resign to lead a new Harvard research program on race and gender in science. Hammonds said that her decision to resign was unrelated to the email search incident.

An independent review of the email searches, released in July 2013, concluded that those involved were "acting in good faith" with the goal to protect student confidentiality.