Review of the Department of African American Studies

REVIEW OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Academic Program Review Subcommittee

Approved by CAP: June 7, 2005

Subcommittee: Drs. Brattain (Chair), Brinton, and Armistead

A sub-committee of the Academic Programs and Continuing Education Committee (APACE) reviewed the Self Study of the Department of African American Studies during Spring Semester 2005. The period covered by this Self Study was FY 2002 to 2004.

I. Unit Profile

The Department of African-American Studies is a small and relatively young department. Departmental status was conferred by the Board of Regents in Fall 1994 and final authorization for the BA degree in African-American Studies was granted in March 1998.

A. Faculty and Staff

The founding chair, Dr. Jones, assumed his position in June 1994 at the rank of Associate Professor. One additional tenure track faculty member was hired in 1994. Since then the department has grown steadily and in 2004 the faculty consisted of 4 tenured Associate Professors, 3 Assistant Professors and 1 Visiting Professor. There is a reasonable gender distribution among the faculty with 3 females and 4 males in the tenure track plus one male lecturer. All members of the faculty are African Americans. The Department of African-American Studies “offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of African people nationally and globally” and is supported in this effort by 17 associate faculty from other university departments. The departmental staff consists of one full-time business manager. The self study states that a student assistant, work-study students and student volunteers supplement the efforts of the business manager.

In 2002, tenure track faculty taught 1146 credit hours in the undergraduate core and 1555.5 credit hours in upper division courses. By 2004, the number of upper division credit hours taught by the tenure track faculty had increased to 1938, but the number of core course credit hours had dropped to 891. In 2004, additional core credit hours were taught by a ½ timehalf-time visiting lecturer (795 credit hours) and a PTI (102 hours).

During the review period, the scholarly production of the departmental faculty was modest with an average of 0.71 refereed publications and 0.38 book chapters per year per faculty member. It was noted that 3 of the 7 faculty members had only one published paper or book chapter during the period of the review. Some of the data presented in Table B-2 did not agree with the information in the CVs of individual faculty members. The Chair explained that many of the discrepancies, which undercounted in several cases, reflected the fact that some forthcoming publications went to press after the table was completed (an article by Jones, a book chapter by Umoja, and 2 articles and a book chapter completed by a new faculty member, Jonathan Gayles who joined the department in fall of 2004 and was not included in table B-2.). It was stated in the self study that the departmental scholarly production during the review period was “slightly lower” than in previous years but no reason for this decrease was provided. Departmental faculty have unique expertise in Black activism and some previous faculty publications are widely cited and included in anthologies. A book by one of the faculty members has been translated into Japanese. The total number of papers presented by faculty at conferences fell during the review period from 16 in 2002 to 9 in 2004. The total number of invited lectures for the faculty was 7 in 2002, 2 in 2003 and 3 in 2004. The departmental faculty were not successful in attracting any internal or external funding during the review period.

The departmental faculty have “assumed an unusually heavy service burden.” Individual faculty members have played significant roles on college, university and senate committees and have provided assistance to other departments in the areas of instruction, faculty recruitment and student and faculty mentoring. The department houses the national office of the National Council for Black Studies (a departmental faculty member is the current Vice President) and organizes the annual conference for this council. Community outreach represents an important component of the department and there is a mandated service-learning requirement for all students in AAS 2010. Social responsibility initiatives sponsored by the department include an Education Outreach program, the “Behind the Walls: Lifeline Prison Education Project, and the Sapelo Island Oral History and Genealogy Project. The department does not currently have an associated service or research center.

B. Degree Programs and Students

There is only one degree program – the ABBA degree. Between 2002 and 2004, there has been a steady growth of majors, from 58 to 79 (mean = 68). Graduates from the program increased from 5 to 21, with a mean of 11 students.

The self-study indicates quality of students as measured by conference presentations by students, and a student publication, and the rate of graduate school acceptance of their majors. 26% of the graduates of the program are now enrolled in graduate school.

The DAAS teaches two service courses which are taken by a large number of non-majors. AAS 2010 (Introduction to African American Studies) is taken by an average of 346 students per year. AAS 1140 (Introduction to African American History) is taken by an average of 239 students per year. When these numbers are compared to the number of majors, it is clear that the vast majority of students enrolled in these courses are non-majors.

The Department has created a successful service learning project within its introductory course, which reflects the department’s commitment to outreach. All students in AAS 2010 (Introduction to African American Studies) are required to volunteer at least 15 hours within a community non-profit organization.

II. Inventory of Program Review

The Academic Program Review Committee of APACE was provided with the following information:

1. The self-study committee consisted of: Cora A. Presley, Chair, Makungu Akinyela, Patricia Dixon, Jonathan Gayles, Arletha Livingston, and Akinyele Umoja
2. The self-study covers the period from FY 2002-2004
3. The self-study was conducted by a committee and is based on data from a survey of alumni, (majors and non-majors), and faculty of Department of African American Studies (DAAS); and OIR data.

The self-study includes all sections and appendixes required by the GSU self-study template, with minor variations. DAAS is a relatively young department and has never undergone academic program review. Therefore, in Section C, “Progress toward goals and objectives since the last academic program review,” progress is measured with respect to the goals set forth in the College of Arts and Sciences’ “Vision for the Department of African-American Studies” and the proposal for a B.A. degree in African-American Studies submitted to the University System of Georgia. Both documents are included in the required Appendix F (Appendix F.1 and F.2). DAAS has provided its Learning Outcome Statement and Assessment procedures, although it will not implement its assessment plan until Fall 2005. DAAS does not have a graduate program, so it does not provide data on graduate students.

1. The self-study contains the following sections, tables, figures, and appendixes:

Section A: Historical Context

Section B: Current Context

Section C.1: Progress Toward Goals and Objectives since the Last Academic Program Review

Section C.2: Implementation of the Department’s Initial Goals

Section D: Quality of the Curriculum

Section E: Quality of the Students in the Program

Section F: Quality of the Program Faculty

Section G: Adequacy of Resources

Section H: Strengths and Weaknesses of the Program

Section I: Program Goals and Objectives for the next APR Cycle

Table B-1: Faculty Distributions by Numbers for FY 2002-2004

Table B-2: Faculty Productivity for 2002-2004

Table B-2.1: Aggregate Faculty Productivity FY 2002-2004

Table B-3: Program Types by Majors and Number of Major Students

Table B-4a: 2002 Credit Hour Generation by Level and Faculty Type

Table B-4b: 2003 Credit Hour Generation by Level and Faculty Type

Table B-4c: 2004 Credit Hour Generation by Level and Faculty Type

Table C: 1994-2004 Academic Conferences sponsored by the DAAS

Figure D.1: Quality Indicators of the African-American Studies Curriculum

Figure D.2: Indicators of the Quality of the African-American Studies Faculty

Figure D.3: Mentoring Indicators of the Department of African-American Studies

Appendix A: Rationale for Choices of Peer Institutions and Programs

Appendix B: Organizational Chart of the Department of African-American Studies’ Unit of Governance and Committee Structure

Appendix C: By-Laws of the Department of African-American Studies

Appendix D.1: Current Faculty Roster 36

Appendix D.2: Associate Faculty of the Department of African-American Studies

Appendix E: Research Centers 38

Appendix F.1: College of Arts and Sciences Vision for the Department of African-American Studies January, 1993

Appendix F.2: Objectives of the B.A. degree in African-American Studies

Appendix G.1: Learning Outcome Statement and Assessment Procedures

Appendix G.2: Template for Social Science Assessment Pilot Project Summer Semester 2004

Appendix H.1: AAS 3120/Anth 3120 “African Diaspora” Syllabus

Appendix H.2: AAS 4600/Hist 4280 “Enslavement and Resistance in North America” Syllabus

Appendix H.3: AAS 4950/Jour 4950 “African American Popular Culture” Syllabus

Appendix I: Degree Requirements

Appendix J: Course Offerings by Year, Term, Level, number of sections, number of students and average number of students 2002-2004

Appendix K.1 - K.50: Survey Results from African-American Studies’ alumni, majors and faculty

Appendix L: Undergraduate Advisement Procedures

Appendix M: Definition of Graduate Faculty and Criteria for Selection of Graduate Faculty

Appendix N: List of Graduate Faculty

Appendix O.1: Curriculum Vitae of Makungu Akinyela

Appendix O.2: Curriculum Vitae of Patricia Dixon

Appendix O.3: Curriculum Vitae of Jonathan Gayles

Appendix O.4: Curriculum Vitae of Charles E. Jones

Appendix O.5: Curriculum Vitae of Arletha Livingston

Appendix O.6: Curriculum Vitae of Cora A. Presley

Appendix O.7: Curriculum Vitae of Akinyele Umoja

Appendix P: Student/Faculty Ratio

Appendix Q: Library Report

1. The external review committee consisted of: James B. Stewart, Professor, Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, African American Studies, and Management and Organization, Penn State University; Diedre Badejo, Professor and Chair, Department of Pan African Studies, Kent State University; William E. Nelson, Research Professor of African American and African Studies and Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University.

External reviewers visited the department on January 9-11, 2005. The external reviewers’ report begins with a brief history and assessment of the current status of Africana Studies (an inclusive term encompassing African American, African and African Diaspora and Pan-African Studies) in the U.S., which informs their evaluation of the DAAS at GSU. The report evaluates the DAAS faculty’s success in balancing research, outreach, and the responsibilities associated with its undergraduate program. Outreach efforts are singled out for more extensive comment, as the DAAS is one of the few departments in the U.S. to include a structured service-learning requirement in the introductory AAS course, a typekind of outreach consistent with the expectations of the National Council for Black Studies. The external reviewers offer a brief commentary on the DAAS’s success in reaching seven of its ten goals, many of them associated with creating a new department and B.A. degree, and notes that two goals, developing an M.A. degree and securing external funds, have not yet been fully realized. In the section reviewing scholarly accomplishments, publications are evaluated in terms of quantity and impact on the field. The external review committee noted the barriers to the creation of the M.A. degree and to securing external funding. The report evaluates the quality of the curriculum and compares it with the basic design recommended by the National Council for Black Studies. Although the committee did not receive empirical measures to quantitatively assess student quality, surveys, data on numerous student accomplishments, and the reviewers’ interviews with current majors, minors and alumni are used to assess student quality. Quality of the faculty and the faculty’s training are evaluated in terms of how they reflect changes in the field of Africana Studies. The committee notes the faculty’s plans for increasing publication rates and obtaining external funding. The eExternal reviewers evaluated resources in terms of the number of faculty, administration staff, technology, office and common space for department functions, and library resources for an M.A. degree. The report concludes with an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, goals and objectives.

F. The inventory also includes a response to the self-study from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Associate Dean Mary Ann Romski, and the chair’s letter to the Dean.

III. Key Observations/Issues

The DAAS is a young department which has, in a little over ten years, established a tenure-track faculty, created a B.A. degree in AAS, created active outreach initiatives, built a strong curriculum and, according to outside reviewers, become a model department in Africana studies. While the external review is positive, it also highlights several issues that will be important as the African American Studies Department works toward its other goals of establishing a master’s degree in AAS, obtaining external funding, increasing research productivity, and establishing the GSU program among premier institutions in the region for academic preparation in African American Studies.

• The DAAS plays a prominent role in the university, furthering the promotion of several goals of the University’s strategic plan, including fostering interdisciplinary inquiry, promoting intercultural and international perspectives among students and participating in scholarly pursuits that make “contributions through research or professional activities in the intellectual, cultural and social well-being of the regional, national and international communities.”

• DAAS faculty are distinguished among their peers in having received African Studies-specific disciplinary training and in regularly presenting at Africana Studies conferences rather than at traditional disciplinary meetings, as well as housing the national office of the National Council for Black Studies. The external reviewers identified the DAAS’s grounding in the emerging discipline of Africana Studies as a unique strength of the department which could enable the department to become “among the most distinguished in the discipline.”

• The DAAS has established a successful B.A. program, with a steadily increasing number of majors (79 in 2004), and has a greater number of majors greater than its peer institutions even though it has fewer faculty members. The DAAS has enhanced the multicultural courses offerings of 13 departments and programs; in several cases its faculty bear primary responsibility for staffing other department’s courses that focus on people of African descent.

• DAAS surveys of majors, minors and alumni also indicate the quality of their curriculum and the high level of student satisfaction with the DAAS. Although a majority of students and alumni ranked the DAAS positive in all areas, student surveys did rank the department slightly lower in the provision of career counseling services and frequency of courses. Majors ranked career counseling higher than alumni suggesting that student satisfaction has risen in this area.

• The DAAS has been very successful in creating community outreach programs and community partnerships. The DAAS service learning initiative is singled out by the external reviewers as a “paradigmatic example of the type of instructional praxis envisioned by the early proponents of Africana Studies.” Thus far, the DAAS’s outreach efforts have resulted in one co-authored publication, buthave not become avenues for obtaining outside funding, although the self-study and the external reviewers suggest plans to incorporate a stronger research focus with an eye toward increasing publications and obtaining grants.

• External reviewers note the quality and wide dissemination of DAAS faculty publications, but research productivity has not met the goals established by the DAAS for itself, and is relatively underdeveloped when measured by quantity. Although the self-study suggests also commits the department to encourageing publications other than book chapters, the external reviewers also noted that “In Africana Studies some of the most important scholarly research has been publishedas chapters in edited, refereed volumes that have received the same degree of pre-publication scrutiny as is the case for manuscripts submitted to refereed journals.” DAAS faculty are committed to improving research output and have proposed plans for doing so.

• The DAAS faculty have “assumed an unusually heavy service burden,” in the university and within their discipline, which is a factor influencing research productivity.

• Obtaining external funding remains an unrealized goal for the DAAS, and both the self-study and the external reviewers propose new plans for meeting this goal. The self-study and external reviewers suggest that areas of specialization may have limited success in this area. The external reviewers also propose ways to modify existing programs to make them eligible for external grants.

• The DAAS is committed to creating an MA program, and the external reviewers were enthusiastic about the potential for a degree at GSU given the strengths of the department. The self-study and the external reviewers agree that the principal barrier is a lack of resources for new faculty lines, but also suggest that DAAS may need additional staff and graduate student support.

• With only one full time permanent staff member, the department currently relies heavily on volunteer and student help for administrative staff.

• All current staff do not have full access to administrative networks. The department does not have a conference room or common space. External reviewers suggest that some kind of common space is necessary to accommodate the existing mission and would be essential to a graduate program.

IV. Recommendations