| African American Studies at UGA
The Institute for African American Studies has evolved at The University of Georgia as an academic program of study since 1969, though its current status dates from 1992. It is dedicated to the production of creative research on the achievements of African Americans and to exciting instruction for a diverse community of thinkers. In addition, it serves as a cultural repository and resource for the citizenry of Georgia.
The Institute offers several courses in the core curriculum. Students wishing to earn a certificate or undergraduate degree in African American Studies can do so by taking the recommended courses approved by the Director. The intent is to be both intellectually exciting and rigorously challenging. Often views might seem unusually innovative. Many students of the Institute are interested in professional study and scholarly research beyond the undergraduate level. Others might begin to lay out a systematic plan for thoughtful public service.
The Role of African American Studies
Western Civilization has been a reliable means to understand world cultures for many generations, but the rapidly changing demography of the United States requires a more profound awareness of cultural resources by thinkers of color. As seekers after human truth, African Americanists should test traditional assumptions about race to help students make more enlightened choices for themselves and their civilization. The primary objective of an African American studies curriculum, regardless of race or color, is education for positive and productive citizenship. Hence, a reasonable list follows:
- Situate students within a learning environment that encourages appreciation of the history and culture of African Americans.
- Develop critical and analytic tools of inquiry necessary for research and publication.
- Develop professionals.
- Teach the economic, psychological, and social situation of Blacks past and present.
- Inquire historically into the profound cultural gap between American ideals of the Constitution and American practices.
- Test the contemporary hypothesis that conscientious dissenters of any color or creed are unpatriotic Americans.
- Liberate American thought from simplistic stereotypes.
- Explore the diversity and range of thought in the African Diaspora.
- Expand the range of academic inquiry about humanity and who is human.
- Foster interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts, and sciences.
- Provide laboratory experiences in a cultural exchange to enrich the professions of business, law, economics, social work, education, and agriculture.
- Facilitate life-long enlightenment about theories and forms of African Americans.
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University of Georgia's Holmes/Hunter Academic Building, location of the Institute for African American Studies
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African American Studies at UGA
Since 1992, African American Studies at the University of Georgia has rapidly developed in quality and quantity. Of the thirty-six courses that are either singly or jointly sponsored, nearly all have had steadily increasing enrollments, bringing program enrollment to well over two hundred undergraduates a year. Course offerings have recently expanded from 33 to 69, with several new courses currently under review.
UGA's Institute for African American Studies boasts a renowned faculty who have published scores of books and critical articles, earned numerous awards in research and teaching, and have proved themselves influential in African American studies and in their own areas of traditional scholarship. Working together as a team, the Director and faculty have more than doubled the appropriate courses and quadrupled the Institute core since 1992. Our scholars have moved the Langston Hughes Review from Brown University to Georgia and established The Womanist as a pioneering, acclaimed periodical. Black Issues in Higher Education has documented the importance of the Institute and represented UGA as a national example of academic diversity. The Institute, which directs research and learning in at least ten associated departments, is truly multidisciplinary.
Funding for African American Studies is administered through the University of Georgia Foundation. The Institute welcomes the public inspiration and support of thoughtful citizens who wish to make a tax-deductible donation to our endowment. |
