Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

158 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States
To spread the Black Studies wealth, Ford has sponsored faculty seminars
(sometimes involving several schools) along with regional and national
conferences some of which have led to important publication projects.Some
of these grants also helped to forge collaboration between research institutes
and teaching units—even between universities and secondary schools. One
major victory of the grants has been to promote a sense of a moving, growing
community of African Americanists whose work is important to the nation.
In a phrase, the past round of grants was tremendously successful.
Ford has had enormous impact in African American Studies. We applaud
the resounding success of the current cycle of grants. We anticipate
more growth and strength in this new field which Ford has helped to nurture
and whose fruits the country and the world are starting to see in abundance.
Notes
1 In the O’Meally-Smith report, the authors collectively refer to African American
Studies programs, departments, institutes, etc., as “units.”
2 Harris argues that Africana Studies as a field has actually passed through four
stages since its inception in the 1890s. See his essay “The Intellectual and
Institutional Development of Africana Studies,” in Three Essays: Black
Studies in the United States, Robert L. Harris, Jr., Darlene Clark Hine, Nellie
McKay (New York: The Ford Foundation, 1990), pp. 7–14 (also included in
this volume, see pp. 141–148).
3 Houston Baker is currently a Distinguished University Professor in the English
Department at Vanderbilt University.
4 Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women, Stanlie
James and Abena Busia editors, London: Routledge, 1993.