Afro-American studies evolves into global player

Even as it busily prepares for a landmark symposium on African-American activist W.E.B. Du Bois, the Department of Afro-American Studies is reinventing itself.

Current department chair Stanlie James says that as the department and the discipline prepare for the new millennium, African Americanists have begun to turn their gaze outward.

“We’ve begun to think carefully about what we’re offering our students. We’re looking at the areas in which we’ve always been strong and expanding them,” she says.

The symposium will take place April 10-12. It and related programming mark the centennial of Du Bois’ pivotal book, “The Souls of Black Folk.” Societies around the world still feel the impact of his ideas, as does the discipline of African-American studies.

Du Bois’ essays have profoundly influenced the way black intellectuals approach their work, as well as scholars and activists studying Latino/as, women, Native peoples, Asian Americans and other groups, says Nellie McKay, a professor of Afro-American studies and English since 1978.

UW–Madison is the perfect venue for the international symposium and related events. Besides being one of the first Afro-American studies departments in the country, UW–Madison’s always has been one of the strongest, says McKay.

“We’ve always been strong in history and literature, and we’re beginning to develop strength in social sciences,” she says. “We are different from many departments because we’ve not been ideologically exclusive. This is one of the few places where black studies scholars with diverse political beliefs can come and have a fair hearing.”

The department is strengthening studies in African-American literature and culture and has begun to include visual and theatrical studies as well as written and oral culture.

The whole of the discipline also has been stepped up to include not only black-white relations in the United States, but the relationships between African Americans and other people of color wherever they are found.

“In the 21st century, we are seeking to locate ourselves within the world. Thus, we are quite cognizant of the need to be multicultural and global as well as inter- and multidisciplinary,” says James, a specialist in women’s international human rights.