The Marxist intellectual Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) developed cultural hegemony to explain the social-control structures of society, arguing that the working-class intelligentsia must generate a working-class ideology to counter the worldview (cultural hegemony) of the ruling class.
In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo
as natural and inevitable, and that it perpetuates social conditions
that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.When the social control is carried out by another society, it is known as cultural imperialism.
In philosophy and in sociology, the denotations and the connotations of term cultural hegemony derive from the Ancient Greek word hegemonia (ἡγεμονία), which indicates the leadership and the régime of the hegemon. In political science, hegemony is the geopolitical dominance exercised by an empire, the hegemon (leader state) that rules the subordinate states of the empire by the threat of intervention, an implied means of power, rather than by threat of direct rule—military invasion, occupation, and territorial annexation.
Background
Historical
In 1848, Karl Marx proposed that the economic recessions and practical contradictions of a capitalist economy would provoke the working class to proletarian revolution, depose capitalism, restructure social institutions (economic, political, social) per the rational models of socialism, and thus begin the transition to a communist society. Therefore, the dialectical changes to the functioning of the economy of a society determine its social superstructures (culture and politics).
Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, argued in his book Problems of Everyday Life, that capitalism was long established in Western Europe, the proletariat of those societies were much more culturally acculturated
with bourgeois habits and reformist traditions and hence more attached
to the existing system. Consequently, this in turn made the
revolutionary process in those respective countries more difficult.
Nevertheless, Trotsky argued that due to the cultural and economic
advantages that Western Europe had accumulated over centuries that this in turn would make the potentiality of socialist construction more achievable.
To that end, Antonio Gramsci proposed a strategic distinction between the politics for a war of position and for a war of manœuvre. The war of position is an intellectual and cultural struggle wherein the anti-capitalist revolutionary creates a proletarian culture whose native value system counters the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie. The proletarian culture will increase class consciousness,
teach revolutionary theory and historical analysis, and thus further
develop revolutionary organisation among the social classes. After winning the war of position, socialist leaders would then have
the necessary political power and popular support to realise the war of
manœuvre, the political praxis of revolutionary socialism.
Political economy
As Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony analyses the functions of economic class within the base and superstructure,
from which Gramsci developed the functions of social class within the
social structures created for and by cultural domination. In the
practise of imperialism, cultural hegemony occurs when the working and
the peasant classes believe and accept that the prevailing cultural
norms of a society (the dominant ideology imposed by the ruling class) realistically describes the natural order of things in society.
In the war for position, the working-class intelligentsia politically educate the working classes to perceive that the prevailing cultural norms are not natural and inevitable social conditions, and to recognize that the social constructs
of bourgeois culture function as instruments of socio-economic
domination, e.g. the institutions (state, church, and social strata),
the conventions (custom and tradition), and beliefs (religions and ideologies), etc. That to realise their own working-class culture
the workers and the peasants, by way of their own intellectuals, must
perform the necessary analyses of their culture and national history in
order for the proletariat to transcend the old ways of thinking about the order of things in a society under the cultural hegemony of an imperial power.
Social domination
Gramsci
said that cultural and historical analyses of the "natural order of
things in society" established by the dominant ideology, would allow common-sense
men and women to intellectually perceive the social structures of
bourgeois cultural hegemony. In each sphere of life (private and public)
common sense is the intellectualism with which people cope with and explain their daily life within their social stratum within the greater social order; yet the limits of common sense inhibit a person's intellectual perception of the exploitation of labour made possible with cultural hegemony. Given the difficulty in perceiving the status quo
hierarchy of bourgeois culture (social and economic classes), most
people concern themselves with private matters, and so do not question
the fundamental sources of their socio-economic oppression, individual and collective.
Intelligentsia
To
perceive and combat ruling-class cultural hegemony, the working class
and the peasant class depend upon the moral and political leadership of
their native intelligentsia, the scholars, academics, and teachers, scientists, philosophers, administrators et al. from their specific social classes; thus Gramsci's political distinction between the intellectuals of the bourgeoisie
and the intellectuals of the working class, respectively, the men and
women who are the proponents and the opponents of the cultural status quo:
Since these various categories of traditional intellectuals experience through an esprit de corps
their uninterrupted historical continuity, and their special
qualifications, they thus put themselves forward as autonomous and
independent of the dominant social group.
This self-assessment is not without consequences in the ideological and
political fields; consequences of wide-ranging import. The whole of idealist philosophy
can easily be connected with this position, assumed by the social
complex of intellectuals, and can be defined as the expression of that
social utopia, by which the intellectuals think of themselves as
"independent" [and] autonomous, [and] endowed with a character of their
own, etc.
— Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (1971), pp. 7–8.
The traditional and vulgarized
type of the intellectual is given by the Man of Letters, the
philosopher, and the artist. Therefore, journalists, who claim to be men
of letters, philosophers, artists, also regard themselves as the "true"
intellectuals. In the modern world, technical education,
closely bound to industrial labour, even at the most primitive and
unqualified level, must form the basis of the new type of intellectual. .
. . The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist of
eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and
passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor
[and] organizer, as "permanent persuader", not just simple orator.
— Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (1971), pp. 9–10.
In 1967, regarding the politics and society of West Germany, the leader of the German Student Movement, Rudi Dutschke, applied Gramsci's analyses of cultural hegemony using the phrase the "Long March through the Institutions" to describe the ideological work necessary to realise the war of position. The allusion to the Long March (1934–35) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army indicates the great work required of the working-class intelligentsia to produce the working-class popular culture with which to replace the dominant ideology imposed by the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie.
State apparatuses of ideology
In Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970), Louis Althusser
describes the complex of social relationships among the different
organs of the State that transmit and disseminate the dominant ideology
to the populations of a society. The ideological state apparatuses (ISA) are the sites of ideological
conflict among the social classes of a society; and, unlike the military
and police forces, the repressive state apparatuses (RSA), the ISA
exist as a plurality throughout society.
Despite the ruling-class control of the RSA, the ideological
apparatuses of the state are both the sites and the stakes (the objects)
of class struggle,
because the ISA are not monolithic social entities, and exist amongst
society. As the public and the private sites of continual class
struggle, the ideological apparatuses of the state (ISA) are overdetermined zones of society that are composed of elements of the dominant ideologies of previous modes of production, hence the continual political activity in:
the religious ISA (the clergy)
the educational ISA (the public and private school systems)
the family ISA (patriarchal family)
the legal ISA (police and legal, court and penal systems)
the political ISA (political parties)
the company union ISA
the mass communications ISA (print, radio, television, internet, cinema)
the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sport, etc.)
The parliamentary structures of the State, by which elected politicians exercise the will of the people
also are an ideological apparatus of the State, given the State's
control of which populations are allowed to participate as political
parties. In itself, the political system is an ideological apparatus,
because citizens' participation involves intellectually accepting the
ideological "fiction, corresponding to a 'certain' reality, that the
component parts of the [political] system, as well as the principle of
its functioning, are based on the ideology of the 'freedom' and
'equality' of the individual voters and the 'free choice' of the
people's representatives, by the individuals that 'make up' the people".
A list of the types of U.S. reconnaissance satellites deployed from 1960 onwardAerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad made by the CIA.KH-4B Corona satelliteU.S. Lacrosse radar spy satellite under constructionA model of a German SAR-Lupe reconnaissance satellite inside a Cosmos-3M rocket.Microwave interception (Rhyolite)
The first generation type (i.e., Corona and Zenit) took photographs, then ejected canisters of photographic film which would descend back down into Earth's atmosphere. Corona capsules were retrieved in mid-air as they floated down on parachutes. Later, spacecraft had digital imaging systems and downloaded the images via encrypted radio links.
In the United States, most information available about
reconnaissance satellites is on programs that existed up to 1972, as
this information has been declassified due to its age. Some information about programs before that time is still classified information, and a small amount of information is available on subsequent missions.
A few up-to-date reconnaissance satellite images have been declassified on occasion, or leaked, as in the case of KH-11 photographs which were sent to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1984, or US President Donald Trumptweeting a classified image of the aftermath of a failed test of Iran's Safir rocket in 2019.
History
On 16 March 1955, the United States Air Force
officially ordered the development of an advanced reconnaissance
satellite to provide continuous surveillance of "preselected areas of
the Earth" in order "to determine the status of a potential enemy's
war-making capability".
During the mid-late 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet
Union took interest into reconnaissance satellites. The United States
began the CORONA
project, which encompassed several series of launches starting in 1959
and ending in 72. This program was made a priority to photograph denied
areas, replace the U-2, and due to public concern about a technological gap between the West and the Soviet Union. It was expedited significantly after the shooting of a U-2 in 1960.
Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, a decree that authorized the
development of sputnik apparently authorized a program for a satellite
to be used for photo reconnaissance. This design evolved into Vostok,
while another version became Zenit, which was an unmanned reconnaissance
satellite. Zenit was launched from 1961 to 1994, however the last
flight in 1994 was as a test payload.
Both the CORONA and Zenit satellites had to be recovered in order
to access the used film, making them distinct from future
reconnaissance satellites that could transmit photos without returning
film to earth.
Types
There are several major types of reconnaissance satellite.
On 28 August 2013, it was thought that "a $1-billion high-powered spy
satellite capable of snapping pictures detailed enough to distinguish
the make and model of an automobile hundreds of miles below" was launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base using a Delta
IV Heavy launcher, America's highest-payload space launch vehicle at the
time.
On 17 February 2014, a Russian Kosmos-1220 originally launched in
1980 and used for naval missile targeting until 1982, made an
uncontrolled atmospheric entry.
Benefits
During the 1950s, a Soviet hoax had led to American fears of a bomber gap.
In 1968, after gaining satellite photography, the United States'
intelligence agencies were able to state with certainty that "No new ICBM complexes have been established in the USSR during the past year". President Lyndon B. Johnson told a gathering in 1967:
I wouldn't want to be quoted on
this ... We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. And if
nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from
space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program
has cost. Because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and,
it turned out, our guesses were way off.
We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we
didn't need to build. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor.
...photo-reconnaissance satellites,
for example, are enormously important in stabilizing world affairs and
thereby make a significant contribution to the security of all nations.
Additionally, companies such as GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have provided commercial satellite imagery in support of natural disaster response and humanitarian missions.
In fiction
Spy satellites are commonly seen in spy fiction and military fiction. Some works of fiction that focus specifically on spy satellites include:
A platoon commander of the 1st Marine Logistics Group,
with the battalion interpreter, gather intelligence from local Afghans
during a combat logistics patrol to the area, May 9, 2010.
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment
of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders'
mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational
or campaign planning. To provide an analysis, the commander's
information requirements are first identified, which are then
incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.
Areas of study may include the operational environment, hostile,
friendly and neutral forces, the civilian population in an area of
combat operations, and other broader areas of interest. Intelligence activities are conducted at all levels, from tactical to
strategic, in peacetime, the period of transition to war, and during a
war itself.
Most governments maintain a military intelligence capability to
provide analytical and information collection personnel in both
specialist units and from other arms and services. The military and
civilian intelligence capabilities collaborate to inform the spectrum of
political and military activities.
Personnel performing intelligence duties may be selected for
their analytical abilities and personal intelligence before receiving
formal training.
Levels
Military intelligence diagram of defense positions during the Battle of Okinawa, 1945
Intelligence operations are carried out throughout the hierarchy of political and military activity.
Strategic
Strategic intelligence
is concerned with broad issues such as economics, political
assessments, military capabilities and intentions of foreign nations
(and, increasingly, non-state actors). Such intelligence may be scientific, technical, tactical, diplomatic or sociological, but these changes are analyzed in combination with known facts about the area in question, such as geography, demographics and industrial capacities.
Strategic Intelligence is formally defined as "intelligence
required for the formation of policy and military plans at national and
international levels", and corresponds to the Strategic Level of
Warfare, which is formally defined as "the level of warfare at which a
nation, often as a member of a
group of nations, determines national or multinational (alliance or
coalition) strategic security objectives and guidance, then develops and
uses national resources to achieve those objectives."
Operational
Operational
intelligence is focused on support or denial of intelligence at
operational tiers. The operational tier is below the strategic level of
leadership and refers to the design of practical manifestation. Formally
defined as "Intelligence that is required for planning and conducting
campaigns and major operations to accomplish strategic objectives within
theaters or operational areas." It aligns with the Operational Level of Warfare, defined as "The level
of warfare at which campaigns and major operations are planned,
conducted, and sustained to achieve strategic objectives within theaters
or other operational areas."
The term operation intelligence is used within law
enforcement to refer to intelligence that supports long-term
investigations into multiple, similar targets. Operational intelligence,
in the discipline of law enforcement intelligence, is concerned
primarily with identifying, targeting, detecting and intervening in
criminal activity. The use within law enforcement and law enforcement
intelligence is not scaled to its use in general intelligence or
military/naval intelligence, being more narrowed in scope.
Tactical
Tactical
intelligence is focused on support to operations at the tactical level
and would be attached to the battlegroup. At the tactical level,
briefings are delivered to patrols on current threats and collection
priorities. These patrols are then debriefed to elicit information for
analysis and communication through the reporting chain.
Tactical Intelligence is formally defined as "intelligence
required for the planning and conduct of tactical operations", and
corresponds with the Tactical Level of Warfare, itself defined as "the
level of warfare at which battles and engagements are planned and
executed to achieve military objectives assigned to tactical units or
task forces".
Tasking
Intelligence should respond to the needs of leadership,
based on the military objective and operational plans. The military
objective provides a focus for the estimate process, from which a number
of information requirements are derived. Information requirements may
be related to terrain and impact on vehicle or personnel movement,
disposition of hostile forces, sentiments of the local population and
capabilities of the hostile order of battle.
In response to the information requirements, analysts examine
existing information, identifying gaps in the available knowledge. Where
gaps in knowledge exist, the staff may be able to task collection
assets to target the requirement.
Analysis reports draw on all available sources of information,
whether drawn from existing material or collected in response to the
requirement. The analysis reports are used to inform the remaining
planning staff, influencing planning and seeking to predict adversary
intent.
This process is described as Collection Co-ordination and Intelligence Requirement Management (CCIRM).
Process
The process of intelligence has four phases: collection, analysis, processing and dissemination.
In the United Kingdom these are known as direction, collection, processing and dissemination.
In the U.S. military, Joint Publication 2-0 (JP 2–0) states: "The
six categories of intelligence operations are: planning and direction;
collection; processing and exploitation; analysis and production;
dissemination and integration; and evaluation and feedback."
Collection
Many
of the most important facts are well known or may be gathered from
public sources. This form of information collection is known as open-source intelligence.
For example, the population, ethnic make-up and main industries of a
region are extremely important to military commanders, and this
information is usually public. It is however imperative that the
collector of information understands that what is collected is
"information", and does not become intelligence until after an analyst
has evaluated and verified this information. Collection of read
materials, composition of units or elements, disposition of strength,
training, tactics, personalities (leaders) of these units and elements
contribute to the overall intelligence value after careful analysis.
The tonnage and basic weaponry of most capital ships and aircraft
are also public, and their speeds and ranges can often be reasonably
estimated by experts, often just from photographs. Ordinary facts like
the lunar phase on particular days or the ballistic range of common
military weapons are also very valuable to planning, and are habitually
collected in an intelligence library.
A great deal of useful intelligence can be gathered from
photointerpretation of detailed high-altitude pictures of a country.
Photointerpreters generally maintain catalogs of munitions factories,
military bases and crate designs in order to interpret munition
shipments and inventories.
Most intelligence services maintain or support groups whose only
purpose is to keep maps. Since maps also have valuable civilian uses,
these agencies are often publicly associated or identified as other
parts of the government. Some historic counterintelligence
services, especially in Russia and China, have intentionally banned or
placed disinformation in public maps; good intelligence can identify
this disinformation.
It is commonplace for the intelligence services of large
countries to read every published journal of the nations in which it is
interested, and the main newspapers and journals of every nation. This
is a basic source of intelligence.
It is also common for diplomatic and journalistic personnel to
have a secondary goal of collecting military intelligence. For western
democracies, it is extremely rare for journalists to be paid by an
official intelligence service, but they may still patriotically pass on
tidbits of information they gather as they carry on their legitimate
business. Also, much public information in a nation may be unavailable
from outside the country. This is why most intelligence services attach
members to foreign service offices.
Some industrialized nations also eavesdrop continuously on the
entire radio spectrum, interpreting it in real time. This includes not
only broadcasts of national and local radio and television, but also
local military traffic, radar emissions and even microwaved telephone
and telegraph traffic, including satellite traffic.
The U.S. in particular is known to maintain satellites that can
intercept cell-phone and pager traffic, usually referred to as the ECHELON
system. Analysis of bulk traffic is normally performed by complex
computer programs that parse natural language and phone numbers looking
for threatening conversations and correspondents. In some extraordinary
cases, undersea or land-based cables have been tapped as well.
More exotic secret information, such as encryption keys,
diplomatic message traffic, policy and orders of battle are usually
restricted to analysts on a need-to-know basis in order to protect the sources and methods from foreign traffic analysis.
Analysis
Analysis
consists of assessment of an adversary's capabilities and
vulnerabilities. In a real sense, these are threats and opportunities.
Analysts generally look for the least defended or most fragile resource
that is necessary for important military capabilities. These are then
flagged as critical vulnerabilities. For example, in modern mechanized
warfare, the logistics chain for a military unit's fuel supply is often
the most vulnerable part of a nation's order of battle.
Human intelligence, gathered by spies, is usually carefully
tested against unrelated sources. It is notoriously prone to inaccuracy.
In some cases, sources will just make up imaginative stories for pay,
or they may try to settle grudges by identifying personal enemies as
enemies of the state that is paying for the intelligence. However, human
intelligence is often the only form of intelligence that provides
information about an opponent's intentions and rationales, and it is
therefore often uniquely valuable to successful negotiation of
diplomatic solutions.
In some intelligence organizations, analysis follows a procedure.
First, general media and sources are screened to locate items or groups
of interest, and then their location, capabilities, inputs and
environment are systematically assessed for vulnerabilities using a
continuously updated list of typical vulnerabilities.
Filing
Critical
vulnerabilities are then indexed in a way that makes them easily
available to advisors and line intelligence personnel who package this
information for policy-makers and war-fighters. Vulnerabilities are
usually indexed by the nation and military unit with a list of possible
attack methods.
Critical threats are usually maintained in a prioritized file,
with important enemy capabilities analyzed on a schedule set by an
estimate of the enemy's preparation time. For example, nuclear threats
between the USSR and the U.S. were analyzed in real time by continuously
on-duty staffs. In contrast, analysis of tank or army deployments are
usually triggered by accumulations of fuel and munitions, which are
monitored every few days. In some cases, automated analysis is performed
in real time on automated data traffic.
Packaging threats and vulnerabilities for decision-makers is a
crucial part of military intelligence. A good intelligence officer will
stay very close to the policy-maker or war fighter to anticipate their
information requirements and tailor the information needed. A good intelligence officer
will also ask a fairly large number of questions in order to help
anticipate needs. For an important policy-maker, the intelligence
officer will have a staff to which research projects can be assigned.
Developing a plan of attack is not the responsibility of
intelligence, though it helps an analyst to know the capabilities of
common types of military units. Generally, policy-makers are presented
with a list of threats and opportunities. They approve some basic
action, and then professional military personnel plan the detailed act
and carry it out. Once hostilities begin, target selection often moves
into the upper end of the military chain of command. Once ready stocks
of weapons and fuel are depleted, logistic concerns are often exported
to civilian policy-makers.
Dissemination
The
processed intelligence information is disseminated through database
systems, intel bulletins and briefings to the different decision-makers.
The bulletins may also include consequently resulting information
requirements and thus conclude the intelligence cycle.
Programs and departments of Black studies in the United States
were first created in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of inter-ethnic
student and faculty activism at many universities, sparked by a
five-month strike for Black studies at San Francisco State University. In February 1968, San Francisco State hired sociologistNathan Hare
to coordinate the first Black studies program and write a proposal for
the first Department of Black Studies; the department was created in
September 1968 and gained official status at the end of the five-month
strike in the spring of 1969. Hare's views reflected those of the black power movement,
and he believed that the department should empower Black students. The
creation of programs and departments in Black studies was a common
demand of protests and sit-ins
by minority students and their allies, who felt that their cultures and
interests were underserved by the traditional academic structures.
The academic discipline is known by various names. Mazama (2009) expounds:
In the appendix to their recently published Handbook of Black Studies,
Asante and Karenga note that "the naming of the discipline" remains
"unsettled" (Asante & Karenga, 2006, p. 421). This remark came as a
result of an extensive survey of existing Black Studies programs, which
led to the editors identifying a multiplicity of names for the
discipline: Africana Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies,
African/Black World Studies, Pan-African Studies, Africology, African
and New World Studies, African Studies–Major, Black World Studies, Latin
American Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Black and
Hispanic Studies, Africana and Latin American Studies, African and
African-American Studies, Black and Hispanic Studies, African American
Studies, Afro-American Studies, African American Education Program,
Afro-Ethnic Studies, American Ethnic Studies, American
Studies–African-American Emphasis, Black Studies, Comparative American
Cultures, Ethnic Studies Programs, Race and Ethnic Studies.
Okafor (2014) clarifies:
What appears to drive these distinctive names is a
combination of factors: the composite expertise of their faculty, their
faculty's areas of specialization, and the worldviews of the faculty
that make up each unit. By worldview, I am referring to the question of
whether the constituent faculty in a given setting manifests any or a
combination of the following visions of our project:
a domestic vision of black studies that sees it as focusing
exclusively on the affairs of only United States African Americans who
descended from the generation of enslaved Africans
a diasporic vision of black studies that is inclusive of the affairs
of all of African descendants in the New World—that is, the Americas:
North America, South America and the Caribbean
a globalistic vision of the black studies—that is, a viewpoint that
thinks in terms of an African world—a world encompassing African-origin
communities that are scattered across the globe and the continent of
Africa itself.
The range of names in Black Studies also reflects the historical and
sociopolitical contexts in which these programs emerged. For example,
terms like "Afro-American Studies" originated during the civil rights
movement, emphasizing a focus on the African American experience and the
struggle for racial equality. In contrast, more contemporary terms like
"Africana Studies" and "Pan-African Studies" reflect a broader
engagement with the global Black experience, including connections
across the African diaspora and an acknowledgment of transnational
influences.
History
Americas
North America
Canada
In 1991, the national chair for Black Canadian Studies, which was named after James Robinson Johnston, was created at Dalhousie University for the purpose of advancing the development and presence of Black studies in Canada. Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was studied by the Black Canadian Studies chairman, John Barnstead.
Mexico
Through development of the publication, The black population in Mexico (1946), Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán made way for the development of Afro-Mexican studies.
The development of Africana studies, as outlined by Robert Harris
Jr., underscores the discipline's evolution in response to historical
contexts and societal needs. The first stage, from the 1890s until World
War II, was marked by grassroots organizations that sought to
illuminate the rich histories and cultures of African peoples. This
foundational work laid the groundwork for future scholarship by
challenging prevailing narratives that often marginalized or
misrepresented Black experiences.
The second stage shifted the focus to African Americans,
reflecting the urgent need to address the unique historical and cultural
contributions of this community, particularly in the wake of the civil
rights movement. This period emphasized the significance of African
American history, culture, and identity within a broader American
context, fostering a greater understanding of systemic racism and social
justice.
The third stage saw the establishment of formal academic programs
labeled as Black Studies, which further institutionalized the
discipline within higher education. These programs aimed to create a
rigorous academic framework for studying the Black experience, often
incorporating interdisciplinary approaches that draw from history,
sociology, literature, and the arts. This formalization not only
legitimized the field but also contributed to a growing body of
scholarship that challenged dominant narratives.
As Africana studies continues to evolve, the fourth
stage—emphasizing global connections and an Afro-centric
perspective—highlights the discipline's responsiveness to contemporary
issues. It seeks to explore the interconnectedness of African and
African Diaspora experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of
cultural phenomena and their implications in a global context. This aim
reinforces the importance of representing diverse voices and
experiences, ensuring that the Black experience is recognized as
integral to the broader human narrative.
In summary, Africana studies serves not only to broaden students'
understanding of global histories and cultures but also to empower them
with an enriched perspective that celebrates the complexity and
diversity of Black experiences. By acknowledging and addressing the gaps
in traditional educational narratives, this field of study aims to
contribute to a more equitable and inclusive understanding of history
and culture.
In the United States, the 1960s is known as the "Turbulent Sixties." During this time period, the nation experienced great social unrest, as
citizens challenged the social order in radical ways. Many movements
took place in the United States during this time period, including
women's rights movement, labor rights movement, and the civil rights
movement.
The students at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) were witnesses to the Civil Rights Movement, and by 1964, they were thrust into activism. On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, a former graduate student, was sitting at a table where the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was distributing literature encouraging students to protest against institutional racism.
Police asked Weinberg to produce his ID to confirm that he was a
student, but he refused to do so and was, therefore, arrested. In
support of Weinberg, 3,000 students surrounded the police vehicle, and
even used the car as a podium, from where they spoke about their right
to engage in political protest on campus. This impromptu demonstration was the first of many protests, culminating in the institutionalization of Black studies.
Two months later, students at UC Berkeley organized a sit-in at
the Sproul Hall Administration building to protest an unfair rule that
prohibited all political clubs from fundraising, excluding the democrat
and republican clubs. Police arrested 800 students. Students formed a "freedom of speech
movement" and Mario Savio became its poetic leader, stating that
"freedom of speech was something that represents the very dignity of
what a human is." The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a well-connected and organized club, hosted a conference entitled "Black Power and its Challenges." Black leaders, who were directly tied to then ongoing civil rights
movements, spoke to a predominantly white audience about their
respective goals and challenges. These leaders included Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Educational conferences, like that of the SDS, forced the
university to take some measures to correct the most obvious racial
issue on campus—the sparse black student population. In 1966, the school held its first official racial and ethnic survey,
in which it was discovered that the "American Negro" represented 1.02%
of the university population. In 1968, the university instituted its Educational Opportunity Program
(EOP), facilitated the increased minority student enrollment, and
offered financial aid to minority students with high potential. By 1970, there were 1,400 EOP students. As the minority student
population increased, tension between activists clubs and minorities
rose because minorities wanted the reigns of the movement that affected
them directly. One student asserted that it was "backward to educate
white people about Black Power when many black people are still
uneducated on the matter. "The members of the Afro-American Student Union (AASU) proposed an academic department called "Black Studies" in April 1968. "We demand a program of 'Black Studies', a program that will be of and
for black people. We demand to be educated realistically and that no
form of education which attempts to lie to us, or otherwise mis-educate
us will be accepted."
AASU members asserted: "The young people of America are the
inheritors of what is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, and
threatening set of social circumstances that has ever fallen upon a
generation of young people in history." Everyone learns differently and teaching only one way is a cause for
students to not want to learn, which eventually leads to dropping out.
All students have their specialties, but teachers don't use that to help
them in their learning community. Instead, they use a broad way of
teaching just to get the information out. AASU used these claims to gain ground on their proposal to create a Black studies department. Nathan Hare,
a sociology professor at San Francisco State University, created what
was known as the "A Conceptual Proposal for Black Studies" and AASU used
Hare's framework to create a set of criteria. A Black studies program was implemented by the UC Berkeley administration on January 13, 1969. In 1969, St. Clair Drake was named the first chair of the degree granting, Program in African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University. Many Black studies programs and departments and programs around the nation were created in subsequent years.
At University of California, Santa Barbara,
similarly, student activism led to the establishment of a Black studies
department, amidst great targeting and discrimination of student
leaders of color on the University of California campuses. In the Autumn
season of 1968, black students from UCSB joined the national civil
rights movement to end racial segregation and exclusion of Black history
and studies from college campuses. Triggered by the insensitivity of
the administration and general campus life, they occupied North Hall and
presented the administration with a set of demands. Such efforts led to
the eventual creation of the Black studies department and the Center
for Black Studies.
Similar activism was happening outside of California. At Yale University, a committee, headed by political scientist, Robert Dahl,
recommended establishing an undergraduate major in African-American
culture, one of the first of such at an American university.
When Ernie Davis, who was from Syracuse University, became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy
in college football, it renewed debates about race on college campuses
in the country. Inspired by the Davis win, civil rights movement, and
nationwide student activism, in 1969, black and white students, led by
the Student African American Society (SAS), at Syracuse University, marched in front of the building at Newhouse and demanded for Black studies to be taught at Syracuse. It existed as an independent, underfunded non-degree offering program from 1971 until 1979. In 1979, the program became the Department of African American Studies, offering degrees within the College of Arts and Sciences.
Unlike the other stages, Black studies grew out of mass
rebellions of black college students and faculty in search of a
scholarship of change. The fourth stage, the new name "Africana studies" involved a
theoretical elaboration of the discipline of Black studies according to
African cultural reclamation and disparate tenets in the historical and
cultural issues of Africanity within a professorial interpretation of
the interactions between these fields and college administrations.
Thus, Africana studies reflected the mellowing and
institutionalization of the Black studies movement in the course of its
integration into the mainstream academic curriculum. Black studies and
Africana studies differ primarily in that Africana studies focuses on
Africanity and the historical and cultural issues of Africa and its
descendants, while Black studies was designed to deal with the uplift
and development of the black (African-American) community in
relationship to education and its "relevance" to the black community.
The adaptation of the term, "Africana studies", appears to have derived
from the encyclopedic work of W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson. James Turner,
who was recruited from graduate school at Northwestern on the heels of
the student rebellions of 1969, first used the term to describe a global
approach to Black studies and name the "Africana Studies and Research Center" at Cornell, where he acted as the founding director.
Studia Africana, subtitled "An International Journal of Africana Studies", was published by the Department for African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati in a single issue in 1977 (an unrelated journal called Studia Africana is published by the Centro de Estudios Africanos, in Barcelona, since 1990).
The International Journal of Africana Studies (ISSN 1056-8689) has been appearing since 1992, published by the National Council for Black Studies.
Africana philosophy is a part of and developed within the field of Africana studies.
In 1988 and 1990, publications on African-American studies were funded by the Ford Foundation,
and the African-American academics who produced the publications used
traditional disciplinary orthodoxies, from outside of African-American
studies, to analyze and evaluate the boundaries, structure, and
legitimacy of African-American studies. To the detriment of the field, an abundance of research on African
American studies has been developed by academics who are not within the
discipline of African American studies. Rather, the academics, and the scholarship they have produced about
African American studies, has been characterized as bearing an "Aryan
hegemonic worldview." It has been argued that due to a staffing shortage in the field of
African American studies, academics in the field, who are trained in
traditional fields, carry with them presumptions of the primacy of their
field of training's viewpoints, which tends to result in the
marginalization of the African phenomena that are the subjects of study
and even the field of African American studies at-large. Consequently, matters of development of theory as well as the
development of historical and African consciousness frequently go
overlooked. As the focus of African American studies is the study of the African diaspora
and Africa, including the problems of the African diaspora and Africa,
Conyers claims that this makes the theory of Afrocentricity increasingly
relevant.
The National Council for Black Studies
has also recognized the problem of academics, who have been trained in
fields such as education, economics, history, philosophy, political
science, psychology, and sociology – fields outside of African American
studies – and are committed to their disciplinary training, yet are not
able to recognize the shortcomings of their training, as it relates to
the field of African American studies that they are entering into. Furthermore, such academics, who would also recognize themselves as
experts in the discipline of African American studies, would also
attempt to assess the legitimacy of Africology – done so, through
analysis based on critical rhetoric rather than based on pensive
research.
Following the Black studies movement and Africana studies movement, Molefi Kete Asante identifies the Africological movement as a subsequent academic movement. Asante authored the book Afrocentricity, in 1980. Within the book, Asante used the term "Afrology" as the name for the interdisciplinary field of Black studies, and defined it as "the Afrocentric study of African phenomena." Later, Winston Van Horne changed Asante's use of the term "Afrology" to "Africology." Asante then went on to use his earlier definition for "Afrology" as the definition for his newly adopted term, "Africology". Systematic Africology, which is a research method in the field of Black studies that was developed by Asante, utilizes the theory of Afrocentricity to analyze and evaluate African phenomena. In an effort to shift Black studies away from its interdisciplinary
status toward disciplinary status, Asante recommended that
Afrocentricity should be the meta-paradigm for Black studies and that
the new name for Black studies should be Africology; this is intended to
shift Black studies away from having a "topical definition" of studying
African peoples, which is shared with other disciplines, toward having a
"perspectival definition" that is unique in how African peoples are
studied – that is, the study of African peoples, through a centered
perspective, which is rooted in and derives from the cultures and
experiences of African peoples. By doing so, as Ama Mazama indicates, this should increase how relevant
Black studies is and strengthen its disciplinary presence.
Caribbean
Among English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, scholars educated in the United States and Britain added considerably to the development of Black studies. Scholars, such as Fitzroy Baptiste, Richard Goodridge, Elsa Goveia,
Allister Hinds, Rupert Lewis, Bernard Marshall, James Millette, and
Alvin Thompson, added to the development of Black studies at the University of the West Indies campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad.
Cuba
During the early 1900s, Fernando Ortiz pioneered the emerging field of Afro-Cuban studies. On January 16, 1937, the Society for Afro-Cuban Studies was established. Afro-Cuban Studies (Estudios Afrocubanos) is the academic journal for
the Society for Afro-Cuban Studies (SEAC/Sociedad de Estudios
Afrocubanos). In 1939, Rómulo Lachatañeré's academic work appeared in a volume of this journal.
Dominican Republic
In 1967, Carlos Larrazábal Blanco authored, Los Negros Y La Esclavitud En Santo Domingo, which is considered to be a foundational academic work in Afro-Dominican studies. Even in areas of the Dominican Republic with many Afro-Dominicans and where Afro-Dominican culture
is predominant, there has been an ongoing challenge in Afro-Dominican
studies to find linguistic evidence of a remnant Afro-Dominican
language.
Haiti
Lorimer Denis, Francois Duvalier, and Jean Price-Mars, as founders of the Bureau of Ethnology and leading figures in the Noirisme movement in Haiti, were also influential in the publishing of the foundational Afro-Haitian studies journal, Les Griots. One of the most influential academics in Afro-Haitian studies is René Piquion.
Puerto Rico
As of 2019, Afro-Puerto Rican studies is not offered as a degree program by the University of Puerto Rico. Numerous academic publications, such as Arrancando Mitos De Raiz: Guia Para La Ensenanza Antirracista De La Herencia Africana En Puerto Rico, were scholarly works that established Isar Godreau as a leading academic in Afro-Puerto Rican Studies.
Central America
Costa Rica
The Executive branch
created a law to establish a Committee for Afro-Costa Rican Studies, as
one, among other laws, to increase the level of inclusion of Afro-Costa Ricans in Costa Rica.
Guatemala
Christopher H. Lutz authored, Santiago de Guatemala, 1541–1773, which is considered to be one of the foundational literatures of Afro-Guatemalan studies.
Honduras
Due to a history of scarce resources and anti-black racism, Afro-Hondurans have largely been excluded from academic publications about Honduras; consequently, Afro-Honduran studies has remained limited in its formal development.
Panama
In
March 1980, along with the Panamanian government, the Afro-Panamanian
Studies Center hosted the Second Congress on Black Culture in the
Americas.
South America
Bolivia
Art Style: Andean textiles, goldsmithing, and pre-Columbian artifacts.
Notable Locations:
Tiwanaku Archaeological Site: Famous for its monumental stone carvings and architecture from the Tiwanaku civilization.
La Paz’s Witches’ Market: Offers handcrafted items and Indigenous Aymara art.
Argentina
Argentina,
located in the heart of South America, is a country with a rich
cultural heritage that spans centuries. Its art scene reflects a unique
blend of indigenous traditions, European influences, and contemporary
innovation, making it one of the most vibrant artistic landscapes in
Latin America. From prehistoric cave paintings to cutting-edge modern
installations, Argentine art is a testament to the country's diverse
history and cultural dynamism.
Since the 1980s, Afro-Argentine studies has undergone renewed growth.
In 1980, Abdias Nascimento gave a presentation in Panama of his scholarship on Kilombismo at the 2nd Congress of Black Culture in the Americas. His scholarship on Kilombismo detailed how the economic and political affairs of Africans throughout the Americas contributed to how they socially organized themselves. Afterward, Nascimento went back to Brazil and began institutionalization of Africana studies in 1981. While at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Nascimento developed the Afro-Brazilian Studies and Research Institute (IPEAFRO). A course for professors was provided by IPEAFRO between 1985 and 1995.
Chile
From the 1920s to the 1950s, publications that included the presence of Afro-Chileans were not systematized, and, from the 1960s to the 1980s, publications continued to group Afro-Chileans with other groups. Since the 2000s, there has been increasing systematization and a more
formal development of Afro-Chilean studies, along with a greater focus
on Afro-Chileans and the recovery of Afro-Chilean cultural heritage.
Colombia
Scholars,
such as Rogerio Velásquez, Aquiles Escalante, José Rafael Arboleda, and
Thomas Price, were forerunners in the development of Afro-Colombian
studies in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, as social science programs became incorporated into
university institutions, contributions from anthropologists and social
scientists added to its emergence. Following the promulgation of the Colombian Constitution, particularly Article 55, in 1991, Law 70 in 1993, and Decree 804 by the Ministry of Education in 1995, the elements for Afro-Colombian studies began to come together, and historic discrimination of Afro-Colombians was able to begin being addressed, with the development of national educational content about Afro-Colombians and Africa. At the University City of Bogotá, of the National University of Colombia,
the Afro-Colombian Studies Group developed and established a training
program in Afro-Colombian studies for primary and secondary school
teachers. In February 2002, a continuing education diploma program in Afro-Colombian studies was developed and began to be offered at the University of Cauca in Belalcázar, Caldas. At the Pontifical Xavierian University, there is a master's degree program in Afro-Colombian studies. There is also a study abroad
program for Afro-Colombian students and African-American students
existing between the Afro-Colombian studies program at the Pontifical
Xavierian University in Colombia and African-American studies programs
at historically black colleges and universities in the United States.
Ecuador
Afro-Ecuadorians
initiated the development of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies in
the late 1970s, which served as a means of organizing academic questions
relating to Afro-Ecuadorian identity and history. Though it dissolved in the early 1980s, by the 1990s, organizations
that followed in the example of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies
ushered in the development of the Afro-Ecuadorian Etnoeducación program
at the National High School, in Chota Valley, Ecuador, and a master's degree program in Afro-Andean Studies at the Simón Bolívar Andean University (UASB), in Quito, Ecuador. With the promulgation of Article 84 of the 1998 Constitution of
Ecuador, gave formal recognition was given to Afro-Ecuadorian
Etnoeducación. Juan Garcia, who was one of the founders of the Center of
Afro-Ecuadorian Studies, is a leading scholar in Afro-Ecuadorian studies
and has contributed considerably to the development of the programs in
Chota Valley and Quito.
Paraguay
In 1971, Carvalho Neto authored, Afro-Paraguayan studies.
Peru
While the presence of Afro-Peruvian studies may not be strong in Peru, the body of scholarship is undergoing growth. There have been efforts to organize the elements of Afro-Peruvian
studies in Peru, such as by LUNDU, which organized an international
conference for Afro-Peruvian studies in Peru on November 13, 2009. During this LUNDU-organized conference, Luis Rocca, who co-founded the National Afro-Peruvian Museum, and is also a historian, presented on his research regarding Afro-Peruvians. A university student group focused on Afro-Peruvian studies was also created near San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, Peru. Additionally, there has been some scholarship in Afro-Peruvian studies developed in the United States and a panel on Afro-Peruvian studies at a conference hosted on December 11, 2019, by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research in the United States.
Uruguay
Since
1996, the amount of scholarship of Afro-Uruguayan studies has increased
as a result of increased global focus on Afro-Latin American studies.
Venezuela
The
curriculum for Afro-Venezuelan studies was developed at Universidad
Politécnica Territorial de Barlovento Argelia Laya (UPTBAL), in Higuerote, Barlovento, by Alejandro Correa.[13] In 2006, Afro-Epistemology and African Culture were formally developed as the initial courses for students in this curriculum.
Following the rise and decline of Black British Cultural Studies
between the early 1980s and late 1990s, Black studies in the United
States reinvigorated Black Critical Thought in the United Kingdom. Kehinde Andrews,
who initiated the development of the Black Studies Association in the
United Kingdom as well as the development of a course in Black studies
at Birmingham City University, continues to advocate for the advancement of the presence of Black studies in the United Kingdom.
Research methods
African Self-Consciousness
Kobi K. K. Kambon developed a research method and psychological framework, known as African Self-Consciousness, which analyzes the states and changes of the African mind.
Africana Womanism
Delores P. Aldridge developed a research method, which analyzes from the viewpoint of black women, known as Africana Womanism. Rather than the importance of the individual (e.g., needs, wants) being
considered greater than the family unit, the importance of the family
unit is regarded as greater than the individual.
Enrich the introduction by highlighting the global resonance and universal themes found in Black American art.
Weave in a compelling thesis statement underscoring its evolution as a mirror to cultural identity and historical struggles.
Afrocentricity is an academic theory and approach to scholarship that seeks to center the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own historical, cultural, and sociological contexts. First developed as a systematized methodology by Molefi Kete Asante in 1980, he drew inspiration from a number of African and African diaspora intellectuals including Cheikh Anta Diop, George James, Harold Cruse, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The Temple Circle, also known as the Temple School of Thought, Temple Circle of Afrocentricity, or Temple School of Afrocentricity, was an early group of Africologists during the late 1980s and early
1990s that helped to further develop Afrocentricity, which is based on
concepts of agency, centeredness, location, and orientation.
Black Male Studies primarily focuses on the study of Black men and boys. Its research focus includes the study of Black manhood and Black masculinity, and it draws from disciplines such as history, philosophy, and sociology. Black Male Studies uses a Black male-centered paradigm designed to critique past and present gender studies
publications on Black males as well as centers and contends with the
problem of anti-Black misandry ("disdain for Black men and boys"). Past and present gender studies publications tend to carry assumptions of Black men and boys being criminals and assailants of Black women and white women. Consequently, past and present gender studies publications tend to
contain paradigms, theories, and narratives that are grounded in
anti-Black misandry, along with a theoretically constructed language of hypermasculinity, and tend to be ill-equipped at understanding Black males as victims. The past and present vulnerability of Black males, ranging from rape,
to sexual abuse, to death, which tends to be overlooked and downplayed
by rhetoric about hypermasculinity, underscores the need to develop new
language, narratives, and theories for understanding Black males.
Blues Culture
James
B. Stewart developed the research method and methodological framework,
known as Blues Culture, which examines the traits (e.g., versatility,
vibration) of Africana culture utilizing various means from an
assortment of disciplines (e.g., economics, history, sociology).
W. E. B. DuBois developed the research method and conceptual framework, known as Double Consciousness,
to analyze how Africana people (and phenomena) exist in a dual
racialized (black-white) world and subsequently develop a dual
consciousness. Rather than succumb to various forms of external pressure (e.g.,
assimilation, harassment, prejudice, racism, sexism, surveillance),
Africana people discover how to steer through them.
Four Basic Tasks of the Black Studies Scholar
James
Turner developed the research method and social scientific framework,
known as Four Basic Tasks of the Black Studies Scholar, which
investigates the problems that affect the experiences of Africana
peoples and addresses four related criteria (e.g., defend, disseminate,
generate, preserve new knowledge) utilizing various means of examination
from an assortment of disciplines (e.g., conceptual history, economics,
political science, sociology).
Interpretative Analysis
Charles H. Wesley
developed the research method of Interpretative Analysis, which
utilizes a structural or cultural system to gather, analyze, and
interpret data.
Maulana Karenga drew from the concept of Nguzo Saba to develop his research method, known as Kawaida Theory. Seven factors (e.g., creative production, ethos, history, religion,
economic organization, political organization, social organization) are
utilized to examine the Africana experience, which is set within a
Pan-Africanist context.
Miseducation of the Negro
Carter G. Woodson developed the research method of and conceptual framework for the Miseducation of the Negro,
which analyzes and assesses the history and culture of Africana people,
and notates their notable loss of such is due to Africana people being
decentered from their own historic and cultural contexts.
Nigrescence
William E. Cross Jr. developed the research method, known as Nigrescence,
as a psychological framework; with the framework, he analyzes Africana
culture and the behavioral dimensions of its psycho-adaptive traits as
well as analyzes a timeline of Black culture (which is composed of five
steps).
Optimal Worldview of Psychology
Linda
Meyers developed the research method, known as the Optimal Worldview of
Psychology, which utilizes investigates the African mind through a
cultural framework (e.g., surface-level structure of culture, deep
structure of culture); its sub-optimal viewpoint highlights the demerits
of an African mind that has an assimilated mentality and its optimal
viewpoint corresponds with an African mind that has an Africana
mentality.
Paradigm of Unity
Abdul Alkalimat
developed the research method known as the Paradigm of Unity, which has
a considerable focus on relationships between social classes, via Marxist analysis, and utilizes gender as a determining factor as well as utilizes an undefined notion of Afrocentricity.
Shared Authority
Michael Frisch developed the research method, known as Shared Authority, to investigate orature, which recognizes the personhood (e.g., subject, agency) and experiences of the Africana individual. Through this methodological recognition, information that may not have
been captured in prior publications is able to be optimally acquired.
Social Legitimacy
Winston
Van Horn developed a research method and methodological framework
(composed of three steps), known as Social Legitimacy, which analyzes
the experiences of Africana peoples and Africana phenomena in their
political and sociological contexts.
Cheikh Anta Diop
drew from anthropology, archaeology, history, and sociology to develop a
research method and cultural metric, known as Two Cradle Theory, to
assess the differences between African and European cultures – between
what are characterized and viewed as the southern cradle and the
northern cradle.
Ujimaa
James L. Conyers Jr. drew from the concept of Nguzo Saba to develop the research method known as Ujimaa;
the methodological framework draws from philosophy, sociology, and
conceptual history, with the understanding that culture is utilized to
analyze and assess Pan-Africanist phenomena from around the world, and
is utilized to analyze social responsibility and the work of the
collective.
Recent challenges and criticisms
One
of the major setbacks with Black studies programs or departments is
that there is a lack of financial resources available to students and
faculty. Many universities and colleges around the United States provided Black
studies programs with small budgets and, therefore, it is difficult for
the department to purchase materials and hire staff. Due to the budget
allocated to Black studies being limited, some faculty are jointly
appointed, therefore, causing faculty to leave their home disciplines to
teach a discipline with which they may not be familiar. Budgetary
issues make it difficult for Black studies programs and departments to
function and to promote themselves.
Racism, perpetrated by many administrators, is alleged to hinder
the institutionalization of Black studies at major universities. As with the case of UC Berkeley, most of the Black studies programs
across the country were instituted because of the urging and demanding
of black students to create the program. In many instances, black
students also called for the increased enrollment of black students and
financial assistance to these students. Also seen in the case of UC Berkeley is the constant demand to have
such a program, but place the power of control in the hands of black
people. The idea was that Black studies could not be "realistic" if it
were taught by someone who was not accustomed to the black experience.
On many campuses, directors of Black studies have little to no
autonomy—they do not have the power to hire or grant tenure to faculty.
On many campuses, an overall lack of respect for the discipline has
caused instability for the students and for the program.
In the past thirty years, there has been a steady decline of Black studies scholars.
Universities and colleges with Black studies departments, programs, and courses
Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography – coverage includes any aspect of Africa, its peoples, their homes,
cities, towns, districts, states, countries, regions, including social,
economic sustainable development, creative literature, the arts, and the
Diaspora.
Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art – focuses on publishing critical work that examines the newly
developing field of contemporary African and African Diaspora art within
the modernist and postmodernist experience, thereby contributing to the
intellectual dialogue on world art and the discourse on
internationalism and multiculturalism in the arts.
_(cropped).jpg)
,_Carter_G._Woodson_Home_National_Historic_Site,_1915._(18f7565bf62142c0ad7fff83701ca5f6).jpg)
_2003.jpg)
