Title: A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, African American Studies and Urban Studies
Company: Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Gerald Jaynes, A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, and African American Studies and Urban Studies at Yale University, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership.
Dr. Jaynes has always aspired to shoot for the moon in his work. As a child, this was held by the dream to be an astronaut. Once he was ruled out of this for not having 20/20 vision, he thought about entering the field of law. However, this all changed when he was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He happened upon an issue of the American Economic Review and was met with the face of Sir William Arthur Lewis. This photo was inspiring to Dr. Jaynes as he was unaccustomed to seeing a fellow Black man in this arena. From then on, he pursued the field of academia in order to be able to read, write, research, and teach about a multitude of his interests. He continued at the University of Illinois to receive a Master of Science in economics in 1974 and a Doctor of Philosophy in economics in 1976.
Since 2021, Dr. Jaynes has utilized his skills and experience to teach students as the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, African American Studies and Urban Studies. He joined the institute in 1977 as a professor in these areas. In addition to these roles, he served as the Chairman of African American Studies at Yale University from 1990 to 1996. Early on in his career, Dr. Jaynes worked for Harold Washington with the Illinois State Legislature.
Throughout his career, Dr. Jaynes has had many achievements. One that stands out to him, in particular, is the second paper he published where he made the analytical discovery that lead to the Jayne-Hellwig-Glauston Allocation. In addition to it being a fulfilling endeavor, people still work on that today and it is included in various books. He is also proud of such achievements as publishing his first book because he put forth the reinterpretation of the origins of sharecropping in the American South after the Civil War ended. With this book, Dr. Jaynes changed the way everyone understood how that occurred. Other achievements include his participation as the study director at the National Research Council for a project on race relations, his part developing the PhD program in African American Studies at Yale and the current book he is writing with the working title, “Black Agency and Public Respect: a Sociology of Memoirs.”
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