Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 149
University of California, Los Angeles
At UCLA, the Center for Afro-American Studies (CAAS) is a research (rather
than a teaching) component of the University. Here, the Ford initiative facilitated
interdisciplinary innovation and synthesis in the field, thereby enhancing
the Center’s vitality and productivity. UCLA’s Ford initiative,
ASPIR—an acronym for Afro-American Studies Program for Interdisciplinary
Research—sought to accomplish these goals by providing faculty release
time, graduate student apprenticeships (sometimes called
“mentorships”), and travel grants.
ASPIR produced many positive results. Faculty and graduate students
found that their research and writing were greatly enhanced by the challenge
to explore the interdisciplinary implications of their projects. Graduate
students were especially gratified to be able to work with faculty
members who challenged them to think beyond national and disciplinary
boundaries. All felt that the project prevented them from feeling isolated,
intellectually and culturally, and provided them with valuable training to
pursue sophisticated research goals. They especially felt that their professional
development was helped immeasurably by the funding they received
to attend conferences, deliver papers, and benefit from the responses of
other intellectuals.
Ford funding underwrote several conferences that attracted large audiences
and showcased the strength of CAAS in the social science and public
policy areas: the “Decline in Marriage Conference” (1989); “Back to the
Basics: Black to the Future”(1990), held at the Audubon Junior High School
in Los Angeles; “A War on Drugs or a War Against the African-American
Community?” (1990). Ford-underwritten graduate student workshops on
funding, research, and cross-cultural studies, assisted graduate students in
ways that had typically eluded them in their home departments.
Because of the size of the University and the complex structure of
CAAS, an academic coordinator (Jim Turner) and an administrative coordinator
(Sandra Sealy) were hired to supervise the ASPIR program. Everyone
to whom we spoke praised the professionalism with which the program
was run, and they all felt that much of its effectiveness, especially for the