Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Introduction
Beginning in fiscal year 1988, the Education and Culture Program of the
Ford Foundation awarded three-year grants to leading departments, programs,
and centers of African American Studies. Ford’s stated goals were to
encourage the next generation of scholars, to support research projects, and
to disseminate the field’s best new scholarship. From January until June
1993, we visited the institutions that received these grants—UC Berkeley,
Cornell, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Pennsylvania, UCLA,
Wisconsin,andYale—to assess the uses to which Ford funding had been put.
In each instance, we were favorably impressed by the ways in which
the academic units 1 had developed programming that suited the needs and
strengths of their institutions and communities. The range of initiatives
that Ford funding has supported testifies to the vibrancy and diversity of
African American pedagogy and research at this point in history, clearly
justifying future funding in the area. With the enterprises of scholarship,
teaching and outreach deeply linked, the comments that follow describe the
highlights of each unit.
At such public institutions as Indiana, UCLA, and Wisconsin, funds
helped to offset shrinking resources during a time of economic crisis.At each
of these schools,some of the grant money was earmarked to enhance the professional
development of graduate students and nontenured faculty by supporting
research travel, faculty-student mentorships, and conferences. At
Wisconsin, Ford funds were used to support a major national conference on
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