Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

202 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States
search, two years previously, that had resulted in an offer to a faculty member
from the University of Pennsylvania was unsuccessfully concluded. A new
search began in fall 1998 and an offer was made to then Sociology Professor
Larry Bobo. By fall 1999 Bobo had decided not to accept the offer and departed
to become a member of the Department of Afro-American Studies at
Harvard. As acting director since January of 1997, Richard Yarborough reports
that he is holding the reins but had expected to hold them for a relatively
short time. In fact, he has overseen faculty searches and recruitment, curricular
expansion, the renewal of the Ford grant that funded the CSADP, the
growth of new development activities, and the hiring of two Assistant Directors
for Research who were responsible for managing CAAS research programs
and extramural grants.
Leadership of Afro-American Studies departments and Centers is a
complex task because there are so many different processes to be balanced
simultaneously. UCLA faculty M. Belinda Tucker quoted Vice Chancellor
Mitchell-Kernan as saying that the role of Director of Afro-American Studies
is “psychologically more difficult than being Vice Chancellor.” 27 Leadership
within the broader university is also an issue. There are two senior
Black administrators in the University (Winston Doby and Mitchell-
Kernan) who have played leadership roles for the last thirty years, but who
are edging closer to retirement. There are no clear successors. Mitchell-
Kernan is also a powerful presence within CAAS, having spent the first part
of her administrative career as director of the Center. It was also under her
direction that the Center’s formal administrative structure, created in 1969,
was so well and creatively implemented. Faculty members Belinda Tucker
and Eugene Grigsby each served a term as Director of the Center before
Yarborough assumed the directorship on an acting basis in 1996, while external
searches have been conducted.
Another challenge facing CAAS is its relationship with the other Ethnic
Studies programs. CAAS has an unusual setting in that it is structurally
related to Chicano Studies, American Indian Studies, and Asian American
Studies under the umbrella of the Institute of American Cultures. The Directors
of the respective programs meet on a regular basis although it is unclear
how often they engage in collaborative programming.