Afro-American Studies to lead new consortium

The university will administer a four-university black studies consortium under a new grant from the Ford Foundation.

Grant coordinator Nellie McKay, professor of Afro-American studies and English, says an important goal of the grant is to acquaint both scholars and the general public with research and other activities in the field.

“The consortium is approaching this from several different angles,” she says. “The first step is to explore what technologies currently are available to make research findings more readily accessible. Our ultimate goal is to increase the role of black studies in the creation of a public policy more responsive to the complicated realities of our multi-racial society.”

UW–Madison will divide the $600,000 grant between Carnegie Mellon, the University of Michigan, Michigan State and the UW–Madison Department of Afro-American Studies.

According to McKay, the consortium will:

• Develop outreach initiatives with K-12 districts. UW–Madison will develop programs in theater, music and the visual arts.
• Establish new and strengthen existing ties with historically black colleges (HBCUs). “Our goal is to allow consortium members to benefit from the perspectives of scholars at HBCUs and to provide them with access to technological and other resources so that they can develop their own consortium,” McKay says. Ford officials say combining resources and academic specialties could be a model for other universities.
• Organize a series of seminars and workshops open to the public, each hosted by a different consortium member institution. Technology will play an important part, as interactive video will allow participation by virtually anyone in the country, McKay says.

UW-Madison will be the first seminar venue. The three-day event will deal with black women’s studies and take place in spring 2000. A subsequent seminar on black urban studies will take place at Carnegie Mellon. The final symposium, on race in the 21st century, will be held at either Ann Arbor or East Lansing. The event will emphasize the relationships between and among African American, American Indian, Latino and Latina, and Asian American populations.

This grant will continue work that the consortium began with a $625,000 Ford Foundation grant in 1995. The new grant is the third from the Ford Foundation to UW–Madison in 10 years.