Beginning July 1, Rutgers will have a new president. Jonathan S. Holloway, a well-regarded historian who has served as the provost of Northwestern University, will become the university’s 21st president, succeeding Robert Barchi, who began his tenure in 2012. Holloway also has been appointed a University Professor and Distinguished Professor.

“I was drawn to the opportunity at Rutgers University because of its amazing history, its foundation of excellence in teaching, and its ambition to continue conducting life-changing research that improves our communities, our country, and our world,” said Holloway during his introduction to the Rutgers community in January. 

Holloway was named the provost at Northwestern in 2017. As its chief academic officer, he oversaw educational policies and academic priorities, the annual budget, and faculty appointments and promotions at the university, which has a high-ranking medical school  and nationally and internationally recognized educational programs.

Before moving to Northwestern, also a member of the Big Ten Conference, Holloway was the dean of Yale College and the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of African-American Studies, History, and American Studies at Yale University. At Northwestern, he was also a professor of history and African-American studies, specializing in post-emancipation social and intellectual United States history.

“Jonathan Holloway is an extraordinarily distinguished scholar, with an outstanding record as an academic administrator at Northwestern and Yale. He is thoughtful, visionary, inclusive, and decisive,” said Mark Angelson during the ceremony to introduce Holloway. “He leads with remarkable integrity, and is just the right person to build upon Rutgers’ long tradition as an academic and research powerhouse.” Angelson, who led the 23-member presidential search committee, is chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors, which, with the consent of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, approved Holloway’s appointment. More than 200 nominations and applications were considered.

Holloway, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, who grew up in Maryland, received a bachelor’s degree with honors in American studies from Stanford University in 1989 and a doctorate in history from Yale University in 1995. He began his academic career at the University of California San Diego, before joining the faculty at Yale in 1999. The author and editor of several books about the history of the African-American experience, among them Jim Crow Wisdom: Memory and Identity in Black America Since 1940 (University of North Carolina Press, 2013), Holloway is working on a new book, A History of Absence: Race and the Making of the Modern World.

Holloway is an elected member of  the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. He was recently appointed to the Governor’s Restart and Recovery Commission, a group of experts who will advise New Jersey governor Phil Murphy on the timing of and preparation for the state’s reopening after the COVID-19 shutdown. Holloway is married to Aisling Colón, with whom he has a son and daughter.

Photo caption: Jonathan S. Holloway is welcomed during a joint meeting of the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees held in January to announce his appointment as Rutgers president effective July 1, 2020.

Photography by Nick Romanenko

This article originally appeared in Rutgers Magazine on May 28, 2020.