Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 3, 2002

Volume 30, Number 28

African American Studies Department
examines its history and its future

A conference and reunion celebrating the past and future of African American Studies at Yale will take place Friday-Sunday, May 3-5.

The event, which is sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Tercentennial Office, was originally scheduled to take place Sept. 14-16 as part of Yale's 300th anniversary celebration, but was postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The event is being coordinated by the Association of Yale Alumni.

Titled "African American Studies and Yale: Revisiting Origins, Imagining Futures," the conference will bring together the founders, alumni and friends of African American studies at Yale who have set its course over more than 30 years for a look at the history and future of the field.

Founded in 1969, Yale's African American Studies Program was the first undergraduate degree-granting program of its kind in the Ivy League. In 1978, the program became the first in the United States to offer master's degrees, and in 1994, Ph.D. degrees were offered jointly with other departments and programs at Yale. African American Studies became a full academic department in 2000.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. on Friday in the Yale University Art Gallery's McNeil Lecture Hall (enter on High Street). President Richard C. Levin and Hazel Carby, chair of the African American Studies Department, will welcome participants. This will be followed at 4:15 p.m. by a panel titled "The Founders of African American Studies at Yale: Revisiting Origins."

On Saturday, there will be a panel titled "1968/2001: Are We Still Radicals?" at 9 a.m. and another on "A New Century: Imagining Futures" at 10:45 a.m. Both will be held in the McNeil Lecture Hall, as will the screening of the film "Homecoming," directed by Charlene Gilbet '87 B.A., at 2 p.m. That evening at 5 p.m., three alumni authors -- Elizabeth Alexander '64 B.A., Joanne Braxton '84 Ph.D. and Gloria Naylor '83 M.A. -- will present a reading of their works in Rm. 101 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St.

Sunday's activities will begin with a service of remembrance for those who played an important role in Yale's African American Studies Program; this will be held by the Black Church at Yale at 9 a.m. in the Afro-American Cultural Center, 211 Park St. At noon there will be a panel on "The Future of the African American Studies Department and the Afro-American Cultural Center" in Rm. 211 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St.

All of the above events are open to the public free of charge.

The weekend includes a Friday night dinner featuring a talk titled "Reflections on African American Studies in a Global University" by Kurt Schmoke '71 B.A., a Yale trustee and former mayor of Baltimore; a lunch on Saturday featuring a presentation of the William Pickens papers and memorabilia; and a dinner and jazz concert on Saturday evening. Those interested in attending these events must register in advance for the conference. Registration is available online at www.aya.yale.edu/grad/afram.

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