In Fall 2005, Dr. Evans conducted a survey of the graduate coordinators at Temple, UMass, Berkeley, Michigan State, Harvard, and Northwestern to inquire about the history and state of doctoral programs in Black Studies. She asked quantitative questions about the makeup of the graduate populations and qualitative questions about the comprehensive examination. The results were published in an article titled "The State and Future of the PhD in Black Studies: Assessing the Role of the Comprehensive Examination" appearing in the May 2006 Southern Conference on African American Studies' GRIOT. (Click picture above for PDF)

As of 2005, over 150 people had earned a PhD in Black Studies and there were about 75 enrolled...with more programs developing on the horizon. Doctoral alumnae are changing in status from graduate students to faculty members and are now preparing undergraduates in the field. With the 2005 program at Northwestern (and programs developed in 2008 at Indiana, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania), questions emerge about the state of graduate training in Black Studies, especially in light of the fact that no doctoral program in Black Studies yet exists in the South. In 2009, the updated survey showed at least 23 degrees were awarded in the past 4 years.

PhD Programs, Graduate Student Profiles, and Updated Numbers (2009-2010)

1. Temple University, http://www.temple.edu/aas/

 

 

5. Michigan State University, https://www.msu.edu/~aaas/

6. Northwestern University, http://www.afam.northwestern.edu/

8. Indiana University, http://www.indiana.edu/~afroamer/

9. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/africology/

10. University of Pennsylvania, http://www.sas.upenn.edu/africana/home.html

11. *Brown University, http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Africana_Studies/

	Dept founded	PhD founded	Annual admits	Enrolled	PhDs awarded*
Temple	1971	1988	10	5	135 (by 2005)
UMass	1969	1996	5	33	24
Berkeley	1970	1997	6-8	30	14
Harvard	1969	1999	4-5	29	5
Michigan St.	2002	2002	6	28	2+ (1 pending)
Northwestern	1971	2006	4-8	14	N/A
Indiana U	1971	2008	?	0	N/A
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	1968	2008	5	0	N/A
U Pennsylvania	1972	2008	2-3	1**	N/A
*Yale	1978	1993	?	23	39

* My apologies for omitting Yale from the original survey. Though it is a joint program, it does graduate PhD students with an African American Studies degree.

** The first class will be admitted at UPenn's program in 2009. The one current student is a transfer

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The forthcoming issue of International Journal of Africana Studies (IJAS) includes perspectives from chairs, faculty, and graduate students in PhD programs: Christian, Mark. & Evans, Stephanie Y. (Eds). Africana Studies at the Graduate Level: A Twenty-First Century Perspective. Special Edition, IJAS. Issue 14. In an Appendix to the issue, Evans suggests a collection of edited volumes that might make for central reading in a graduate seminar on approaches to Black Studies. Though each doctoral program focus will clearly be based in a reading list about Black history, politics, art, and culture in addition to the particular focus of each graduate student, a seminar class on the major contributors to themes in Black Studies development is in order at this stage of graduate program and disciplinary growth.

This is an incomplete list. Certainly, hundreds of single-authored monographs in Black Studies must be considered in order to have a full grasp of Black experiences, critical themes, and suitable approaches to research in the field. However, looking at the discussion generated from multi-authored/edited volumes provides a collective insight to the exchange of ideas available to new PhD scholars.

 

RESOURCES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN BLACK STUDIES

 

1. NCBS PAPER: "Assessing Graduate Training in Africana Studies: Creating Community as the Interdiscipline Expands." (Evans, 2009) ~ forthcoming

2. GRIOT ARTICLE, "The State and Future of the PhD in Black Studies." (Evans, 2006)

3. JBS ARTICLE, "Black Studies in the 21st Century." (Christian, 2006)

4. TEN BST PhD PROGRAM WEBSITES (w/ 2009 statistics, graduate student profiles, and select dissertations) below Griot article

5. EDITED VOLUME BOOK COVERS: Over thirty edited volumes in Black Studies, 1969-2009 (see above)

6. BST BIBLIOGRAPHIC STUDY GUIDE: Complete table of contents for BST edited volumes (95 pages, with space to take notes)

7. BST COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM & SUBJECT GUIDE: Complete table of contents for BST edited volumes, categorized by 10 subject headings:

• Arts, media, and entertainment; music; dance; film/cinema; sports studies; press; communication; technology
• Black Studies: Definitions, problems, organization, institutionalization, status, assessment; intellectual traditions; theory; epistemology; Afrocentricity and Pan-Africanism; Africology
• Education and activism; campus structures; higher education; curriculum; pedagogy; scholarship; community service; leadership development; social work; civil rights; Black power
• History and geography; historiography; documentation; library; museum studies; biography; oral history; antebellum era; reconstruction; segregation; country, regional, state studies
• Literature, language, and textual readings
• Politics and economics; law; crime and punishment; welfare; class; labor; employment
• Psychology; sociology; social science
• Race; ethnicity; racism; blackness, whiteness or interracial identities
• Religion and health; theology; spirituality; natural and physical sciences
• Women, men, families; gender, and sexuality; feminism/womanism

8. e-blackstudies.org