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Department of African American Studies records

 Collection
Identifier: 05.AAS

Scope and Contents

The Department of African American Studies records date from 1999 to 2004 and primarily documents the work of the Department and excludes the earliest years of the Black Studies program and the more recent history of the Department including the name change to the Department of Africology and African American Studies.

Materials in the collection are divided into two main series of materials, Administrative Files and Course Information. Administrative Files series is arranged alphabetically and includes files from Department head Dr. Robert L. Perry, as well as other faculty members in the department although the Faculty subseries is light on teaching, service or research files of the tenured members of the Department faculty.

The Course Information series is also arranged alphabetically with information pertaining to class scheduling, substitutions and those courses offered. The Course Substitutions and Offered Courses subseries are both arranged chronologically and date from 1998 to 2004, the earliest years of an official Department. Offered Courses is limited to 2003 and 2004 and is further subdivided into semesters and then filed by course identification number and title.

The Proposal for the Establishment of the Center for African American Studies is the only substantial documentation from the Department's precursor program then named Black Studies, that offered undergraduate minors. Overall the collection contains little to the earliest years of the program or the last decade of the Department. Many of those files either still reside in the Department or with individual faculty members.

Dates

  • Creation: 1999 - 2004

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the the University Archives.

Historical note

On March 7, 1969 the Faculty Council directed the Instructional Problems Committee to report on the demand of african american students "that black studies program be initiated." The committee recommended in June of that year that an "interdisciplinary minor or major in black studies" be created. By the fall of 1970, the first interdisciplinary major or minor subject was offered in Black Studies at Eastern Michigan University. In May 1973 the Board of Regents approved the hire of a Director of Black Studies and Gerald McIntosh was appointed to serve as the first program director. He served in this role until 1978 when Ronald C. Woods took over at the program director. The program name changed to Afro-American Studies program in the late 1970s, early 1980s.

In 1990 the Board of Regents approved a new degree program in African American Studies allowing the program to receive department status and a department head. Since its inception, the department, now known at the Department of Africology and African American Studies (AAAS), has provided programs of study, research and service on the African world experience with particular focus on the life and culture of people of African descent in the Americas.

Students engage in the study of African and African Americans in the United States, the African diaspora, and the African continent itself, using a broad array of interdisciplinary tools. As of 2014, the department offered a bachelor's degree program in African American Studies, a minor in African American Studies, a graduate certificate in African American Studies and an undergraduate certificate in African Studies.

Extent

4.1 Linear Feet (3 record center cartons, 2 archive boxes, 1 halfsize archive box, 1 oversize folder)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Department of African American Studies records (now known as the Department of Africology and African American Studies) dates from 1999 to 2004 and focuses on the more recent years of the department, excluding much of the earliest history when the teaching of African American history was limited to a Black Studies program as well as the more recent history when the Department changed its name to Africology and African American Studies. Materials in the collection are divided into two primary series of Administrative Files and Course Information. Materials are comprehensive by not complete, excluding examples from all of the teaching faculty in the department.

Title
African American Studies Department records
Status
Completed
Subtitle
Records of the Department of Africology and African American Studies
Author
Alexis Braun Marks, CA
Date
2014 November 1
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Eastern Michigan University Archives Repository

Contact:
Bruce T. Halle Library, Room 310
955 West Circle Drive
Ypsilanti Michigan 48197
734-487-2673