NYU Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award The NYU Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award is presented annually to a humanitarian within the NYU community who embodies and exemplifies the characteristics promoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- "a vision of peace, persistence in purpose, and inspirational action." The recipient must be an NYU alumnus or alumna, or a current NYU faculty or staff member.
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Humanitarian Award
2012 Award Recipient: Dr. Jack Tchen, GSAS '90, '92
Dr. Jack (John Kuo Wei) Tchen is a facilitator, teacher, historian, curator, re-organizer, and dumpster diver. He works on understanding the multiple presents, pasts, the futures of New York City, identity formations, trans-local cross-cultural communications, archives and epistemologies, and progressive pedagogy. He also works on decolonizing Eurocentric ideas, theories, and practices and making our cultural organizations and institutions more representative and democratic. Professor Tchen is the founding director of the A/P/A (Asian/Pacific/American) Studies Program and Institute at New York University and part of the original founding faculty of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU. He co-founded the Museum of Chinese in America in 1979-80 where he continues to serve as senior historian. Jack was awarded the Charles S. Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities (renamed The National Medal of Humanities). Read More
- 2011 Award Recipient: Fritz Francois MD, MS, FACG earned a B.A. with commencement speaker honors from NYU College of Arts and Science. He completed his medical degree at the NYU School of Medicine, where he stayed for internship, residency, chief residency, and gastroenterology fellowship. During residency he founded the Department of Internal Medicine Organization to Nurture Diversity (D.I.A.M.O.N.D.) to address recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities into the medicine training program. Read More
- 2010 Award Recipient: Howard Zinn, a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Read More
- 2009 Award Recipient: Peter Westbrook, founder and executive director of the Peter Westbrook Foundation. He is a six-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team and the winner of the bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics. Read More
- 2008 Award Recipient: Anna Deavere Smith, actress, playwright, and author. It has been said that she created a new form of theater. When granted the prestigious MacArthur Award, her work was described as "a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie." Read More
- 2007 Award Recipient: Majora Carter was born, raised, and continues to live and work in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. But that doesn't mean her career has not taken her around the city, the nation and the world in pursuit of resources and ideas to improve the quality of life in her environmentally challenged community. Read More
What is the Future of Diversity in the Media, Arts, Education, Cities, Economy, Immigration and Activism? Find out at the university-wide event during MLK Week at NYU, featuring 7 leaders from various areas speaking for 7 minutes on 7 topic areas surrounding this year’s theme, The Future of Diversity: Here & Now. Confirmed speakers include Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University Professor, philosopher and influential intellectual, who will address the issue of activism; and Dr. Mitchell L. Moss, Director of the Rudin Center for Transportation and Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, who will speak about the issue of cities.
We will also be presenting the NYU MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award to Associate Professor Jack Tchen who is the Founding Director of NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute and co-founder of the Museum of Chinese in America.
Jack is an alumnus of the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science, '90, '92.
Future Nominations
You may send nominations for consideration to Marian Newsom via mail or email:
Marian Newsom
Office of University Development and Alumni Relations
25 West 4th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York, 10012
marian.newsom@nyu.edu (email)