Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

184 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States
department also offered the Wells Scholars Program for college students.
But, the “Black Atlantic Seminar” was seen as “moving up a step,” setting
up a stream of students for admission to the University who would eventually
enter a graduate program in Afro-American Studies. This gateway
course was designed, therefore, to attract students into Indiana University
graduate programs and to establish a stream for the department’s master’s
program that began in fall 1999. This was implied rather than explicitly
framed by departmental planning documents.
Historical and Contemporary Status of the Department of
Afro-American Studies
Afro-American Studies was created in 1970 as a program under the direction
of Herman Hudson, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and the
first Vice Chancellor of Afro-American Affairs. Hudson immediately
pushed for the development of the program into a department, which was
approved in April 1971. In 1970, the departmental faculty included three
tenure track faculty and five associate instructors. But, by 1990, there were
four full professors, five associates, and five assistant professors, along with
thirteen associate instructors and five graduate assistants. The College Incentive
Plan (CIP) Humanities Study Group Report noted that between
1996–97 the department had lost six faculty through four retirements, one
departure, and one tenure denial, but it had hired four—three at the assistant
and one at the associate level. In contrast to units such as those at Ohio
State and UCLA, where William Nelson and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan led
the department and Center, respectively, for long periods in the 1970s and
1980s, Indiana’s department has been chaired by a series of faculty: Herman
Hudson 1970–72, 1981–85; Joseph Russell 1972–81; Portia Maultsby
1985–1991; Mellonee Burnim 1992–95; and John McCluskey 1995–1999.
The department’s mission is to introduce students “to a wide range
of current research and scholarly opinion on the history, culture and social status
of Black Americans and their African heritage.As an intellectual enterprise,
the department provides an eclectic analysis of the Afro-American experience
and trains students in many skills essential for later success in life.” 11 The de-