Dr Tony Baugh completed his doctoral studies in January. Congratulations to Dr Baugh who has taken up a position as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Coppin State University. Originally from Virginia, Dr Baugh’s research examines the works of C.L.R. James, Cornel West, Huey P. Newton, the broader Marxist tradition, and Black American radicalism.Dr Baugh has taken a tenure-track role at Coppin where he will assist in building up their philosophy offering and, in due course, establish an Africana Philosophy programme. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)Coppin State University was founded in 1900 and is a member of the group of institutions known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUs are institutions that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African American students. Among the graduates of HBCUs are civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., film director Spike Lee and former vice-president Kamala Harris.Doctoral experience at EdinburghAsked to reflect on his achievements and time at the University, Tony had this to say: To study at the University of Edinburgh was to deepen my scholarship in an intellectually stimulating environment. Inspired by my classmates, who care deeply about philosophy, and enthralled by the city of Edinburgh, the Athens of the North, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, whose history is written into its very foundation, is an experience that I shall never forget.Professor Tommy Curry is a scholar par excellence. Working with him, the guru of Black male studies and Africana philosophy, my own materialist and anti-rationalist approach to doing philosophy was emboldened, as reflected in my PhD thesis. Additionally, by writing a blithe recommendation letter and conferring with a university of prospective employment, Prof Curry was instrumental in me securing my position at Coppin State University, where I am privileged to begin my career in the professoriate teaching Black, working-class students philosophy at a historically Black university. Dr Tony Baugh Professor Tommy Curry on the impact of Dr Baugh’s workFor Professor Tommy Curry, Personal Chair in Africana philosophy and Black male studies, Dr Baugh’s work stands not only as a scholarly achievement but also as a meaningful intervention into longstanding structural exclusions: It was a genuine pleasure to advise Dr. Baugh. He exemplifies the calibre of research conducted at the University in Africana Philosophy, Black Male Studies, and anti-colonial theory. He is only the second Black philosophy student to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh—an exceptional and historic accomplishment that speaks directly to the persistent under-representation of Black men within the American academy and the discipline of philosophy more broadly.His dissertation is an exceptional work that underscores the indispensable role of Black intellectual history in contextualizing the forms of racism that shape our present moment. I remain particularly moved by his formulation of a liberation theodicy, in which he argues: “In a liberation theodicy, Black people do not make meaning of the world despite the world; Black people make a world despite having no world.Dr. Baugh is a prescient and disciplined thinker whose scholarship anticipates the complexities and dangers of moral immaturity in Western societies committed to white supremacy, while offering oppressed peoples a philosophically rigorous alternative to assimilation. Professor Tommy Curry Personal Chair in Africana philosophy and Black male studies We wish Dr Baugh is his new venture and we are excited to see what he does next.Related linksPhilosophies of suffering: exceptionalist and assimilationist theodicies of eighteenth-to twentieth-century Black American thought as foundational of twenty-first-century Black (neo)conservative epistemic retrogressionPPLS Perspectives: Confronting the University’s Racial HistoryCoppin State University Publication date 30 Jan, 2026
