James E. Turner, the founding director of Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center, was reappointed to the post for a five-year term, effective July 1. Turner, whose first stint as director lasted 17 years, is a political sociologist specializing in African-American social movements and a leading expert on Malcolm X. Turner succeeds Locksley Edmondson, who has directed the Africana Center for the past five years.
As director, Turner will oversee all academic activities, faculty and curricular development and fiscal planning.
"One of my priorities will be to develop an endowed faculty position at the center," he said. "We've had a great history of development, but we don't have an endowed professorship. I also want to seriously explore the development of a Ph.D. program." Currently, Cornell students receive bachelor's and master's degrees in Africana studies.
The center has grown considerably since it was established in 1969 under Turner's leadership.
"We've grown from a faculty of four to a faculty of 10 and expanded from an initial offering of about 10 courses to over two dozen," he said, adding that the center's classes now attract students from all of Cornell's schools.
The center also attracts student and scholars from beyond the campus's borders, he said: "We have an established colloquia series that attracts people from as far north as Canada and as far south as Newburgh, N.Y." The center also serves as an important resource for the Ithaca community, offering a course for the past 10 years on multicultural education and curriculum for teachers in the Ithaca City School District.
Before coming to Cornell in 1969, Turner earned an undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University and graduate degrees from Northwestern University and the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati.