Paternalism and Temple’s Enduring Black Studies Crisis - Higher Education: Back in November, I blogged on the crisis in the Department of African-American Studies (DAAS) at Temple University. I would like to update you on what happened.
In the summer of 2012, Teresa Soufas, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, rejected the department’s nomination for chair, distinguished dance professor Kariamu Welsh, to replace retiring long-time chair, Nathaniel Norment. It was a bitter pill for the department to swallow. Then, allegedly, the dean denied the department’s request for a line to hire an outside chair (a denial the dean said never happened). To top it off, Soufas placed the department in receivership, and appointed as interim chair, Jayne Drake, a White vice dean with no background in African-American studies.
In effect, as the doctoral program celebrates its 25-year anniversary, the department sits in the dreaded receivership, with no autonomy.
