The Survey on Issues in Africana Studies: A First Report

Year 2009, Issue: 29, 137 - 179, 01.04.2009

Fabio Rojas

Abstract

The Survey on Issues in Africana Studies collected data on the attitudes, backgrounds, perceptions, social contacts, and pedagogical practices of AfricanAmerican/Africana Studies professors. Using data from 221 respondents, I found that Africana Studies professors tend to see their programs as having a well-established place in the university. They report that enrollments are stable and faculty size is increasing. As their discipline resembles many social science and humanities fields, African-American Studies professors are evenly divided between men and women, and they are politically liberal. I found that respondents believed that the field has its own research tools and core ideas. Respondents agree that African-American Studies should become part of a larger African Diaspora Studies field, which suggests that the Diaspora perspective has gained acceptance within Africana Studies. Respondents were divided about undergraduate student involvement in departmental decision-making. A set of questions regarding key texts in the field show that only one book has achieved a nearly unanimous status as a canonical text, W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk.

References

• Aldridge, Delores, and Carlene Young, eds. Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. New York: Lexington Books, 2000.
• Alkalimat, Abdul. The African American Experience in Cyberspace. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
• ——. Cyberorganizing. 2003. E-Book Available: www.eblackstudies.org.
• ——. Introduction to Afro-American Studies. 2002. E-Book Available: www.eblackstudies.org.
• Asante, Molefi Kete. Afro-Centricity: The Theory of Social Change. Rev. ed. Chicago: African American Images Press, 2003.
• Asante, Molefi Kete, and Abd S. Abarry, eds. African Intellectual Heritage: A Book of Sources. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 1996.
• Azevedo, Mario, ed. Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1993.
• Joseph, Peniel, E. “Dashikis and Democracy: Black Studies, Student Activism, and the Black Power Movement.” Journal of African American History 88.2 (2003): 182-203.
• Karenga, Maulana. Introduction to Black Studies. Inglewood, CA: Kawaida Publications, 1982.
• ——. “Black Studies and the Problematic of Paradigm: The Philosophical Dimension.” Rpt. in The African American Studies Reader. Ed. Nathaniel Norment. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2001.
• Rojas, Fabio. “Academic Philanthropy and the Ford Foundation’s Sponsorship of Black Studies, 1968-1994.” Unpublished Article. http://mypage.iu.edu/~frojas/research.html
• ——. From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, forthcoming. http://mypage. iu.edu/~frojas/research.html
• ——. “Social Movement Tactics, Organizational Change, and the Spread of African-American Studies.” Social Forces 84.4 (2006): 2139-2158.
• ——. The Survey on Issues in Africana Studies: A First Report. Department of Sociology, Indiana University, 2005. http://mypage.iu.edu/~frojas/research.html
• Rooks, Noliwe M. White Money Black Power: The Surprising History of African American Studies and the Crimes of Race in Higher Education. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2006.
• Small, Mario. “Departmental Conditions and the Emergence of New Disciplines: Two Cases in the Legitimation of African-American Studies.” Theory and Society 28.5 (1999): 659- 707.
• Weissinger, T. “Black Studies Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis of Periodical Literature.” Collections Management 27 (2002): 45-56.
• ——. “Defining Black Studies on the World Wide Web.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25.4 (1999): 288-293.