A 10-day institute at Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center will devote itself exclusively to the role of black women and scholarship in Africana studies from both theoretical and research perspectives. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Ford Foundation, the institute, titled "Holding Up Both Ends of the Sky: Engendering Africana Studies," will be held June 15 to 25.
The event is one of the first of its kind to directly address the disparities of black women's roles and perspectives in the history and development of Africana studies, said James Turner, Cornell professor of Africana studies and the director and coordinator of the institute. The development of the scholarly literature and research on the experience of women of African descent is integral to the intellectual, pedagogical and curricula advancement of the field, he said.
"Like many areas of American scholarship, Africana studies is male-dominated and paradigmatically male-centered in terms of major theoretical, historiography and social analysis," said Turner. "The function and purpose of this event is to conscientiously support the engendering of the field of Africana studies and to expand the scholarship and intellectual scope of the field."
For instance, Turner said, much of the history of the civil rights movement focuses on men like W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, with tangential references to significant women contributors. Most people know of Rosa Parks, a citizen who took a well-publicized stand against segregation and thus became an icon. But less is known about Ella Baker, a mentor and role model to King. Baker was a powerful influence on the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Before anyone knew of King, Baker was a field organizer for the NAACP, taking enormous personal risks in her efforts to secure black voters' rights in the south.
In addition to its central purpose of engendering the field, the institute also will provide a forum for exchange between distinguished scholars of black women studies and graduate students and recent Ph.D.s working within the discipline.
Among the participants are a dozen leading Africana scholars and 25 institute fellows. Ten of the visiting scholars are women. Among the distinguished professors of Africana studies who will present talks in the Africana Studies and Research Center's Hoyt Fuller Room are: Elsa Barkley Brown, University of Maryland; Sheila Walker, University of Texas at Austin; Marta Moreno-Vega, Hunter College; Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Spellman College; and V.P. Franklin, Columbia University.
For dates and times of presentations, or for more information about the institute itself, contact Judy Jones at 255-4291 or Turner at 255-0531.
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