Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 183
each of the lecturers.In the latter two years,the substantive integration of the
seminar’s themes—on“Population Movement and Migrations”(1997) and
“Religion and Political Movements” (1998)—addressed topical issues that
repeat fairly consistently in the materials included. These supporting documents—more
detailed and considerably richer than the first year’s—suggest
that greater communication and discussion occurred between the director
and the prospective faculty as they prepared for the seminar.
The seminars operated for approximately six weeks each of the summers
and met daily for three hours with thirteen students from ten Midwestern
and three HBCUs enrolled in 1997. In 1997 the seminar used a resident
tutor as liaison among the directors, teaching faculty and students; and to
carry out activities in support of the seminar such as copying, book orders,
library reserve, films, and equipment. The department contracted with the
university’s conference bureau to handle financial arrangements, travel, and
housing. In November 1997, the faculty who participated in the seminar also
participated in a university “Forum on Migrations and Population Movements.”
In January 1998, the students returned for a mini-conference during
which they presented their completed research papers and participated in
discussions with faculty and graduate students. 10 This summer seminar was
used as a model to develop an interdisciplinary course,“The Black Atlantic.”
The department had proposed and secured approval for the course through
the University’s curriculum process by fall 1998. The seminar has been designed
as an undergraduate or graduate-only, interdisciplinary, team-taught
seminar. Presumably, Indiana University will offer minority fellowships to
graduates of the 1998 Black Atlantic Seminar, if they are admitted to the
graduate program.
This three-year seminar was truly distinctive when compared with
the other programs the consultants reviewed. It was aimed at undergraduates
at other institutions; it focused, in a relatively limited way, on
creating a single interdisciplinary course. Indeed, the department had
managed—and manages—several other external and internal programs.
The Telluride Association based at Cornell University funds a sophomore
Seminar, which has been offered for nine years for high school
sophomores who are then offered scholarships to Indiana University. The