The Struggle for African Area Studies: A View from Wisconsin

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-44
Author(s):  
Richard D. Ralston
Keyword(s):  
African Studies ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
International Language ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
The University

Three separate but related issues made an unforgettable impression on me during 1982-1985, the three years that I chaired the African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, they seem daunting and no less diminished: 1) the perennial threats of severe cuts in federal Title VI funding for international language and area studies, 2) the apparent demoralization of area studies graduates owing to a gloomy job market picture, and, despite these blows, 3) the continuing, demonstrated importance of African Area Studies to our campuses and society at large.

The SOAS School of African History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shobana Shankar
Keyword(s):  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
African Studies ◽  
African History ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Bachelor Of Arts ◽  
International Standing ◽  
The University

Founded in 1916, the School of African Studies at the University of London provided training in African, Asian, and Middle Eastern languages and history to colonial officers. Over more than a century, the transformation of African history at the SOAS from an imperial discipline to one centered on African experiences reveals challenges in the creation, use, and dissemination of ideas, or the politics of knowledge. The school, as the only institution of higher learning in Europe focused on Africa, Asia, and Middle East, has had to perform a balancing act between scholars’ motivation to challenge academic skeptics and racists who dismissed Africa and British governmental, political, and economic priorities that valued “practical education.” In 1948, the University of London took steps to create an international standing by affiliating several institutions in Africa. Over several decades, many historians preferred to teach in Africa because the climate in Britain was far less open to African history. SOAS convened international conferences in 1953, 1957, and 1961 that established the reputation of African history at the SOAS. Research presented at these meetings were published in the first volume of the Journal of African History with a subsidy from the Rockefeller Foundation. The first volumes of the journal were focused on oral history, historical linguistics, archaeology, and political developments in precolonial Africa, topics covered extensively at SOAS. SOAS grew considerably up until 1975, when area studies all over Britain underwent a period of contraction. Despite economic and personnel cuts, SOAS continued research and teaching especially on precolonial Africa, which has periodically been feared to be subsumed by modern history and not fitting into visions for “practical” courses. In the late 1980s, the school introduced an interdisciplinary bachelor of arts degree in African studies that requires African language study because so many students were specializing in Africa without it. This measure reveals the lasting commitment to engaging African voices. African history at the SOAS has also continued to be a humanistic enterprise, and in 2002, it was reorganized into the School of Religion, History, and Philosophies. It remains to be seen how Brexit might affect higher education. While cuts in education could hurt African studies more than other area studies as they often have, strained relations between Britain and continental Europe might make African countries more important to Britain in the coming years.

Challenges in Sustaining Small African Studies Programs

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
W.O. Maloba
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Adequate Funding ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Intractable Problems ◽  
External Sources

The future of African studies in the United States will be determined, to a large degree, by the viability of small African studies programs. More of these small programs exist than the large and better-funded Title VI programs. Spread throughout the country, the small programs involve more faculty and students than do the Tide VI programs. In recent years, however, these small programs have been beset by several seemingly intractable problems, including lack of adequate funding from both internal and external sources, isolation, lack of sustained institutional support, competition from other area studies programs on campus, and shifting intellectual and research interests on the part of the local Africanist faculty. This article will both explore these complex interrelated problems and offer some recommendations.

The Future of Africa's Past: Observations on the Discipline

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 453-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Western World ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
The Future ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The University

In April 2007 David William Cohen and his graduate students held a symposium on the future of African Studies at the University of Michigan. David Cohen, two graduate students—Isabelle de Rezende and Clapperton Mavhunga—as well as five invited speakers with different disciplinary backgrounds—Pius Adesanmi, Tim Burke, Jennifer Cole, Paul Zeleza, and myself—contributed papers. The purpose of the conference, entitled “2020: Re-Envisioning African Studies,” was twofold. First, it appeared timely to reflect yet again on the state of African Studies in disciplinary-based and area studies departments. Second, David Cohen had the idea of 2020 representing both the utopia of ideal vision and the concrete question of what the field might look like when the graduate students participating might conceive their second book projects. What follows are the thoughts—not a list of solutions—by a historian who has studied in three academic contexts—Germany, Zimbabwe, Britain—who has taught in as many—Britain, Germany, USA—and who has gathered experience both in area and disciplinary-based departments.Finding one's intellectual home in area studies is problematic for a range of reasons, not least for the exoticization and marginalization of non-western world regions in the global flows of ideas. At the same time, African Studies make for a comfortable sense of belonging. This is a community of scholars who provide a productive and engaging, if at times impassioned, conversation with colleagues across disciplinary boundaries, time periods, and the great diversity of African and diasporic societies and regions. The question is: what place does the historical discipline occupy within this field, and what is its future?

African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin

1965 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-430
Author(s):  
M. Crawford Young
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Members ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
University Departments ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
A Minor ◽  
The University

The African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin was established in September 1961, thus formalising the co-operation which had been developing over several years between faculty members in various disciplines and departments with research and teaching interests in Africa. The Program provides a centre for the co-ordination of such teaching and research. A certificate in African studies may be obtained in association with an M.A. degree in one of the university departments; at the Ph.D. level, African studies may be offered as a minor field.

Title VI and African Studies: Prospects in a Poly centric Academic Landscape

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
James C. McCann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ford Foundation ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Federally Funded ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Northwestern University

In 1996, the Ford Foundation and the African Studies Association published African Studies in the United States: A Perspective by Jane Guyer, a noted economic anthropologist and then-program director at Northwestern University. In that commissioned volume, Guyer outlined, as she saw them, three distinct eras of African studies in the United States. She also collected and analyzed data about the production of knowledge concerning Africa, specifically numbers of doctorates in key disciplines, linkages to African institutions, and intellectual trends in scholarship. The data and perspectives she presented reflected the situation in African studies in the first half of the 1990s and sought to endorse the Ford Foundation funding initiative “Strengthening African Studies.” The purpose of this article is to revisit the question almost a decade later and in particular to reflect upon the specific role of federally funded area studies programs (i.e., Title VI) in the study of Africa.

I Major Centers

1966 ◽  
Vol 9 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-67
Author(s):  
David W. Brokensha
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Graduate Degree ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
American University ◽  
International Service ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Howard University ◽  
The University

Inquiries to: Dr. Darrell Randall, Chairman, African Area Studies Program, School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C. 20016. Faculty: Frank Lorimer, demography; Emmet V. Mittlebeeler, political science; Harvey C. Moore, anthropology; Matthew F. Norton, geography; Oliver A. Peterson, economics; Darrell Randall, political science; Absolom L. Vilakazi, anthropology. Courses: Undergraduate courses; graduate degree in African area studies or in one of the following disciplines: anthropology, economics, sociology, history, government and public administration, philosophy and religion, international relations and organization, languages. Main subjects: Political science, anthropology, history, geography, economics. Main features: African studies may be taken at the School of International Service of the American University in cooperation with other departments and schools of the University and with other universities in the Joint Graduate Consortium of Washington, D.C. This means that a graduate student can work for a degree in African studies at the American University and take approved courses in any of the following universities: Howard University, Catholic University, Georgetown University, and George Washington University. Cooperative study with other area programs: Unusual opportunities exist at the School of International Service, American University, for relating African interests to other area studies programs, such as the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Communist areas of the world.

Some Biological Applications of High Voltage Electron Microscopy

1974 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 298-299
Author(s):  
Hans Ris
Keyword(s):  
High Voltage ◽  
Chromosome Structure ◽  
Nerve Fibers ◽  
Good Resolution ◽  
High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
High Voltage Electron ◽  
One Year ◽  
The University

The High Voltage Electron Microscope Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin has been in operation a little over one year. I would like to give a progress report about our experience with this new technique. The achievement of good resolution with thick specimens has been mainly exploited so far. A cold stage which will allow us to look at frozen specimens and a hydration stage are now being installed in our microscope. This will soon make it possible to study undehydrated specimens, a particularly exciting application of the high voltage microscope.Some of the problems studied at the Madison facility are: Structure of kinetoplast and flagella in trypanosomes (J. Paulin, U. of Georgia); growth cones of nerve fibers (R. Hannah, U. of Georgia Medical School); spiny dendrites in cerebellum of mouse (Scott and Guillery, Anatomy, U. of Wis.); spindle of baker's yeast (Joan Peterson, Madison) spindle of Haemanthus (A. Bajer, U. of Oregon, Eugene) chromosome structure (Hans Ris, U. of Wisconsin, Madison). Dr. Paulin and Dr. Hanna are reporting their work separately at this meeting and I shall therefore not discuss it here.

Ultrastructural characteristics of sporidia of Ustilago

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 786-787
Author(s):  
Patricia N. Hackney
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Type System ◽  
Tube Formation ◽  
High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Ustilago Hordei ◽  
Silene Alba ◽  
The University

Ustilago hordei and Ustilago violacea are yeast-like basidiomycete pathogens ofHordeum vulgare and Silene alba respectively. The mating type system in both species of Ustilago is bipolar, with alleles, A,a, (U.hordei) and a1, a2 (U.violacea) at a single locus. Haploid sporidia maintain the asexual phase by budding, while the sexual phase is initiated by conjugation tube formation between the mating types during budding and conjugation.For observation of budding, sporidia were prepared by culturing the four types on YEG (yeast extract glucose) broth for 24 hours. After centrifugation at 5000g cells were either left unmated or mated in a1/a2,A/a combinations. The sporidia were then mixed 1:1 with 4% agar and the resulting 1mm cubes fixed in 8% gluteraldehyde and post fixed in osmium tetroxide. After dehydration and embedding cubes were thin sectioned with a LKB ultratome and photographed in a Zeiss 9s transmission electron microscope or in an AE1 electron microscope of MK11 1MEV at the High Voltage Electron Microscopy Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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