Khalil Gibran Muhammad (born April 27, 1972) is an American academic. He is a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and the Radcliffe Institute. He is the former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a Harlem-based branch of the New York Public Library system, a research facility dedicated to the history of the African diaspora. Prior to joining the Schomburg Center in 2010, Muhammad was an associate professor of history at Indiana University Bloomington. Early life and education Muhammad grew up in South Side, Chicago, a working- and middle-class community that was predominantly segregated. He attended Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park. He is the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer Ozier Muhammad and Dr. Kimberly Muhammad-Earl, a teacher and administrator at the Chicago Board of Education. His paternal great-grandfather is Elijah Muhammad, an African-American religious leader, who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his death in 1975 when Muhammad was 2 and a half years old. In 1993, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics. During college, Muhammad became a member of the Delta Eta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 2004, Muhammad received his Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University, specializing in 20th century and African-American history. In 2013, Muhammad was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School. Career After graduation from college, he worked as a public accountant at the financial advisory firm Deloitte & Touche LLP for three years. Initially planning a career in business, influenced by Rodney King case and O J Simpson murder case, Muhammad decided to shift to history and academia. From 2003 to 2005, Muhammad worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice reform agency in New York City. In 2005, he joined the faculty of Indiana University Bloomington as professor of American history, African American and African diaspora studies and American studies. From 2010 until 2015, he served as director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He succeeded long-time director, Howard Dodson. In December 2015, it was announced that Muhammad would leave his position at the Schomburg to teach at Harvard University. At Harvard he is professor of history, race and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and holds a dual appointment at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Author Muhammad is the author of