Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

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56 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States its candidate. Such arrangements presuppose goodwill and respect among the departments involved. In such ways, autonomy can work against the department’s efforts. Furthermore, even when university budgets were more ample, it was impossible for an Afro-American studies department to provide faculty in all of the disciplines thought useful to it. As a result, they are forced to depend on a very limited program (history and literature) or rely on other departments’ offerings. Whatever the expectation of those who struggled to create departments rather than programs, joint appointments are the general rule throughout the country. Sometimes this resulted from administrative fiat, sometimes out of necessity. Ewart Guinier, the first chairman of Harvard’s department, had no joint appointment himself and attempted to make the question of departmental autonomy and integrity rest on the power to promote a junior person to tenure from within. The president and the dean, responding to university-wide criticism of the department’s program and standards, in 1974 made promotion from within the Afro-American studies department conditional upon joint appointment. Guinier failed in his effort to force this issue in his favor. This case illustrates another important limit to departmental autonomy. Appointment and tenure matters must be concurred in by university-wide and ad hoc committees (in Harvard’s case these committees are made up of outside scholars appointed by the dean), and, finally, only the president makes appointments. The practice of joint appointments is a good thing when it works well. It dispels suspicion about the quality of a department’s faculty, especially necessary in a new field in which standards and reputation are in question. Furthermore, it gives Afro-American studies a voice and an advocate within the conventional departments, which is quite useful for communication and goodwill. In this regard, the practice achieves some of the good features of programs. Whether imposed by the administration or adopted as a matter of convenience, however, joint appointments may be the cause of problems and friction. A candidate may fail to win tenure in the second department, its faculty claiming a failure to meet their standards. Since questions of standards are seldom easy to resolve, these decisions are likely to cause antagonism and ill will. Joint appointments also raise questions of
Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 57 service, loyalty, and commitment of faculty to Afro-American studies. Once appointed, a faculty member may find it more congenial working in the field of his discipline; if he is tenured, little can be done. From the faculty member’s point of view, moreover, joint appointments can pose problems. It is time-consuming to be a good citizen in two departments. Junior faculty, particularly, are likely to feel themselves to be serving two masters, each having its own expectations. Graduate Programs Few Black Studies departments or programs offer work toward a graduate degree. Yale, as has been noted, offers an M.A. in Afro-American studies, which seems to attract student teachers and those who expect to be able to use knowledge thus acquired in community or public service work. The University of Rhode Island offers courses that supplement other master’s programs in, for example, human resources and international development. UCLA has a graduate and postdoctoral program and provides no formal undergraduate offering. The small number of graduate programs is not difficult to understand. Graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences have been shrinking everywhere; some have ceased to exist. Student interest has shifted from academic careers to law, medicine, and business. Furthermore, those who wish to follow scholarly careers are better off working in conventional departments; in universities where they exist, such study could be directed by scholars of Afro-American life. One advantage of this arrangement is that it can help to stimulate scholarship about Afro-Americans in conventional disciplines. In general, however, Afro-American studies faculty lack the advantages that come from having graduate students. The Undergraduate Center Sometimes, when there is neither a department nor a program of Afro- American studies, there will be a center, as, for example, the Center for Afro-American Studies at Wesleyan. Such centers have little or no academic
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A 25th anniversary retrospective of
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Copyright © 1985, 1990, 1994, 2000
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Table of Contents Acknowledgments P
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Preface The Ford Foundation is prim
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Page 27 and 28: The American University in Crisis a
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Page 35 and 36: The Huggins Report Contents Preface
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Page 101 and 102: African American Studies from Imple
Page 105 and 106: Three Essays: Black Studies in the
Page 107 and 108: Preface to the Harris, Hine, McKay
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Page 119 and 120: Black Studies: An Overview Darlene
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professional scholars engaged in re
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Funding Change: Introduction to the
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Inclusive Scholarship: Developing B
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Evaluation of Ford-Funded African A
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Introduction Beginning in fiscal ye
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General Assessments Beginning in fi
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PART FOUR A Changing Political Cont
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The Pinderhughes, Yarborough Report
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PART FIVE Epilogue: Continuing Chal
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Contributors Farah Jasmine Griffin
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Index Note: Page references in ital
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