A Major Step Forward

New department focuses on African experience

A brand new academic department will focus on the experiences of African Americans, indigenous Africans and people of African descent around the world and, ultimately, will be the only Black Studies department in the South or Southwest that offers Ph.D.s.

The Department of African and African Diaspora Studies was formally established by the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board in November and announced by university officials in February. University alumnus Joe Jamail has given $1 million for an endowed chair in the department, which is preparing to hire faculty and offer courses and degrees by the fall.

The department will work closely with the new Institute for Critical Urban Policy, which has also been created with the support of members of the Texas Legislature. Both will be part of the College of Liberal Arts.

“It’s a major step forward,” anthropology professor Edmund T. Gordon says of the new department, which he will chair. “These types of programs are very rare. It will be the only Black Studies department in Texas.”

Currently, about 30 students major in African American Studies through the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies. Gordon hopes to double that number within a few years and to hire 10 full-time faculty members from outside the university within five years.

“This is a landmark event for The University of Texas at Austin,” says support was instrumental in establishing the department and institute. “Not only will the new department and institute offer world-class educational and research opportunities, they also demonstrate the university’s ongoing commitment to diversity and to pursuing understudied areas of scholarship.”

The department will offer bachelor’s degrees this fall. It is applying for approval from the Coordinating Board to begin offering master’s degrees and doctoral degrees in the future.

“The important part of the process up until now was keeping our eyes on the prize,” says Warfield Center director and theatre and dance professor Omi Osun Joni L. Jones. “To create what we’re beginning to imagine is thrilling.”

Several faculty members in the new department will also be affiliated with the institute, where they will research, analyze and gather data on the state’s African American population and promote scholarship on urban issues.

The university was closed to African Americans until the United States Supreme Court ruled in the 1950 case of Sweatt v. Painter that it was required to admit African Americans to its law school.

The university established an Afro-American Studies Program in 1969 and, in 2007, renamed what had become the Center for African and African American Studies for former Director John L. Warfield.

The Warfield Center will continue to operate after the department is created. It will oversee programs, lectures, faculty and student research, community collaborations and other cultural and educational opportunities on campus. Sophomore and African American Studies major Diane Enobabor says she believes the new department will increase research opportunities for students.

“The major has given me a stronger sense of self awareness,” says Enobabor, an Arlington native who also majors in government and Latin American Studies. “The new department will be a centralized place for students to study these important issues and learn that Africans and the African experience are not monolithic.”

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, is among a group of lawmakers who has supported the creation of the new department and to operate after the department is created. It will oversee programs, lectures, faculty and student research, community collaborations and other cultural and educational opportunities on campus. Sophomore and African American Studies major Diane Enobabor says she believes the new department will increase research opportunities for students.

“The major has given me a stronger sense of self awareness,” says Enobabor, an Arlington native who also majors in government and Latin American Studies. “The new department will be a centralized place for students to study these important issues and learn that Africans and the African experience are not monolithic.”

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, is among a group of lawmakers who has supported the creation of the new department and institute. He praised the move at the February announcement. “This will be an invaluable resource to the legislature as we work to address issues facing the African American and rapidly growing urban population of our state,” Turner said. institute. He praised the move at the February announcement.

“This will be an invaluable resource to the legislature as we work to address issues facing the African American and rapidly growing urban population of our state,” Turner said.

PHOTO OF EDMUND T. GORDON