Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

180 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States
such as Chicago,Duke,and Princeton.A less-noted aspect of these recruitments
is the fact that almost all of these faculty members have joint appointments,
which gives the field a critical presence in departments other than Afro-
AmericanStudies.(Twomembersof theAfro-AmericanStudiesfaculty,Professors
Wilson and West, actually hold endowed chairs as university professors.)
Also noteworthy in this context is the number of extremely ambitious
and significant projects that the Du Bois Institute has sponsored over the
past decade. Among them are the African Art Database, the Harvard Guide
to African American History, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, and
the Image of the Black in Western Art Photo Archive. Moreover, not only do
Professors Gates and Appiah (Afro-American Studies and Philosophy) edit
the important international journal Transition out of Harvard but they also
oversaw the production of the Encarta Africana CD-ROM in collaboration
with Microsoft, perhaps the most notable application of new computer and
media technology to African American Studies in recent years. Finally, the
Du Bois Institute provides an academic home for the Institute on the Arts
and Civic Dialogue, a Ford-funded project headed by playwright, actress,
and Stanford professor Anna Deveare Smith.
In addition to the energetic and ambitious leadership of Professor
Gates, the strong support of the Harvard administration has been indispensable
to the growth of African American Studies at the university. (President
Neil Rudenstine and former Dean of Harvard College Henry Rosovsky deserve
special mention here.) A perhaps less central, but still relevant, factor
has been the unique status of the Afro-American units at Harvard. That is,
there appears to be little support among the current faculty and administration
for creating new freestanding Ethnic Studies departments and programs.
(Similarly, Harvard has a comparatively small number of student
groups defined along racial or ethnic lines.) One might even venture to say
that had not the Afro-American Studies department and the Du Bois Institute
been founded when they were, they might not even exist today.
The growth of African American Studies at Harvard shows scant indication
of slowing anytime soon. The rapid building of an endowment in
the Du Bois Institute (supported by a Ford grant in 1997) and the ongoing
support from foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller, Kellogg, and others