Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation
Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation
Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation
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208 <strong>Inclusive</strong> <strong>Scholarship</strong>: <strong>Developing</strong> <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Studies</strong> in the United States<br />
research methods and digital history worked on the Holsinger Project (an<br />
archive of nine thousand images from a nineteenth century photographer’s collection<br />
in Charlottesville) and the Venable Lane Project (a study of Charlottesville’s<br />
African American community in the nineteenth century). Other<br />
Woodson, predoctoral (two year),and postdoctoral (one year) fellows, and visiting<br />
scholars also provided an intellectual resource for the Woodson seminars.<br />
The University of Virginia is interested in a regional consortium, what<br />
Butler calls “a springboard for other collaborative ventures” 33 between the<br />
Woodson Institute and such participating institutions as Virginia State,<br />
Hampton, Norfolk State, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Union, Fayetteville<br />
State, Salisbury State, and Delaware State Universities. As a permanent<br />
regional consortium, these schools would share resources and develop<br />
programs related to African and African American <strong>Studies</strong>.<br />
The Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia<br />
The Woodson Institute is an interdisciplinary research center founded in<br />
1981 in honor of Carter G. Woodson, the African American Virginia-born<br />
scholar who pioneered African American and African <strong>Studies</strong>. Faculty<br />
members have joint appointments and are tenured in departments. In 1995,<br />
when the Institute’s director, Armstead Robinson, died at age 49, the faculty<br />
reported their concern about the status and survival of the Institute. Paula<br />
McClain, former Chair of the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs,<br />
chaired the search committee for Robinson’s replacement and, along<br />
with her committee, nominated Reginald Butler as Director. She reported<br />
that faculty had been quite concerned about the status of the Institute.<br />
Associate Professor of History Butler has proven to be a forceful and effective<br />
director. He has been an intellectual leader in conceptualizing such<br />
programs as the Chesapeake Seminar. He responded to the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
“Crossing Borders: Revitalizing Area <strong>Studies</strong>” initiative with a proposal titled<br />
“Changing Cultures of Race in the Pan-Atlantic World.” Although that<br />
proposal was unsuccessful, Butler has offered Program Officer Margaret<br />
Wilkerson an alternative proposal under the Afro-American <strong>Studies</strong> initiative.<br />
He has forged new interactions with Women’s <strong>Studies</strong> including cross-