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Lee D. Baker

Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
Box 90091, Durham, NC 27708-0042
210 Friedl Bldg, Durham, NC 27708-0042

Overview


Lee D. Baker is Professor of Cultural Anthropology, and African & African American Studies at Duke University. He received his B.S. from Portland State University and doctorate in anthropology from Temple University. He has been a resident fellow at Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Johns Hopkins’s Institute for Global Studies, The University of Ghana-Legon, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Humanities Center. His books include From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 (1998), Life in America: Identity and Everyday Experience (2003), and Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture (2010). Although he focuses on the history of anthropology, he has published numerous articles on such wide ranging subjects as socio-linguistics to race and democracy. Baker is also the recipient of Richard K. Lublin Distinguished Teaching Award. He served as Dean of Academic Affairs from 2008-2016.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of Cultural Anthropology · 2010 - Present Cultural Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies · 2014 - Present African & African American Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published May 19, 2025
Lee D. Baker Appointed Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Published August 24, 2022
Meet the QuadEx Faculty Fellows
Published October 6, 2021
‘Truth is a Linguistic Question’: Five Scholars on Fraught Questions of Language Discrimination

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Recent Grants


Supporting Neurodiverse Students in Academic Testing Centers

ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National College Testing Association · 2025 - 2026

AB Duke Scholarship Program (2025)

Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Angier Biddle Duke Memorial · 2025 - 2026

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Education, Training & Certifications


Temple University · 1994 Ph.D.
Portland State University · 1989 B.S.