Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 53
a department and to the program. Because of this structure, it is relatively
easy for the program to exploit the curricula of other departments; it is not
necessary for the program to provide all of the courses its students are expected
to take.
Most Afro-American studies offerings in the country follow the program
model.A good example is theYale program.Its success had much to do
with the willingness of student advocates to accept this plan rather than insist
on “autonomy.” It has been noted for the broad range of faculty involvement.
Names like Sidney Mintz,Charles Davis,Robert Thompson,and John
Blassingamehavebeenassociatedwithit.Davis,untilhisrecentdeath,served
as director; his place has been taken by Blassingame. Young scholars of remarkably
high quality have been in the program—especially in literature.
Names like Robert Stepto, Henry Gates, and Houston Baker come to mind.
Apparently from the beginning, association with the program has been
judged with approval in academic circles. The Yale program is one of the few
in the country offering a graduate program leading to a master’s degree.
The strengths of this model are obvious, but principally they reside in
its capacity to engage a wide range of departments and faculty in the service
of Afro-American studies. This, of course, would not have been a strength to
those of markedly separatist persuasion. Its major weakness, as those who
argued for autonomy predicted,is its dependence for survival on the continuedsupportandgoodwillof
othersintheuniversity:thepresident,dean,and
the heads of cooperating departments,among others.Yale’s program has not
been troubled in this regard, but other programs have, especially when enrollments
drop or when there is disagreement about standards or goals.
Programs like Yale’s are designed to offer undergraduates a major (or
field of concentration) for their degree. Not all programs do. Some merely
offer a few courses with a focus on subject matter having to do with Afro-
American life. Such courses may be accepted for credit by the student’s major
department (for example, economics) or may serve merely as an elective.
Wesleyan, for instance, until recently had a complicated system in which an
Afro-American studies major was possible but in which students found it
difficult to put the necessary courses together; they thus majored elsewhere
and took the one or two Afro-American studies courses as electives. (The