Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 151
projects, lectures, and travel-abroad components of the undergraduate
program mutually reinforce that priority. CAAS is to be commended for its
leadership in conceptualizing new directions in African American Studies.
University Of Pennsylvania
Of all the programs we have reviewed, Penn’s is the most straightforward
in design and motive. Ford’s grant was joined with other monies to fund a
summer seminar in Black Studies for professors in the northeast region.
The idea was to invite people from a wide range of disciplines to spend an
intensive six-week period reading about the history of and approaches to
Black Studies, discussing key questions in the expanding field with leading
scholars in the field from Penn and beyond.
The challenge of this program was to “re-tool” scholars who want to
catch up with a quickly changing field by providing opportunities to see interdisciplinary
work in action: writing and teaching by veterans who do
what they do with great expertise. The participants tested their own papers
against the criticisms of one another and heard presentations by the likes
of Marcellus Blount, Manthia Diawara, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.
In all cases auxiliary readings were assigned to provide each session with as
rich a context as possible.
The program has had its ups and downs. The first summer’s stunning
success was followed by a summer of division and discontent. This past
summer—with the topic back to the first year’s broad “History, Content
and Method in Afro-American Studies,” the group seems very solid and serious;
the group’s leadership is vigorous and committed.
Penn’s success with this program was both local and regional. The
Ford imprimatur has helped the Center for the Study of Black Literature
and Culture in its relations with the University as a whole and with other
granting agencies. One success has led to another. Ford’s sponsorship has
helped the seminar’s faculty leaders and graduate student assistants in their
ongoing efforts to stay abreast of the field’s new work. Graduate student affiliates
have been especially rewarded by their association with the seminar.
Not only do they hear and read some of the field’s best new work, they gain