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By Jayne Spencer
The Indiana Commission on Higher Education (HEC) has approved a master of arts degree in Afro-American studies on the Indiana University Bloomington campus.
According to John McCluskey, chairperson of the Department of Afro American studies at IUB, the first master's class will enter the university in the fall of 1999.
The program will provide a theoretical base of knowledge, methods of research and a context for analyzing the African-American experience. Students will be exposed to both historical and current methodological approaches, as well as to issues throughout the African diaspora.
(See this
Home Pages archival site for IU's involvement in African diaspora studies
and literature:
http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/1122/1122text/afro.htm
The first black studies department was developed at San Francisco State University 30 years ago. The interdisciplinary program in Afro-American studies was founded as a department at IU in 1970.
The IUB Department of Afro-American Studies received the 1996 Sankore Institutional Award from the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS).
The NCBS bestows the Sankore Award annually to an institution or organization whose work and leadership have contributed significantly to the development and institutionalization of black/Africana studies in the United States and internationally. The IU program was cited for its Black Culture Center and ongoing faculty research and scholarship on African world peoples:
http://www.indiana.edu/~afroamer/afroamer-home.html
For information on the Blacks in the Disaspora Series, sponsored by the IU Press:
http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/1122/1122text/iupress.htm
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