A Crisis in Black Studies at Temple University - Higher Education

A Crisis in Black Studies at Temple University - Higher Education: In the last few days, the graduate students in the Department of African American Studies (AAS) at Temple University have dispatched a carefully written letter to thousands of faculty across the nation in an effort to publicize what they call “a crisis.”

Indeed, there is a crisis in this department, at this university. And now, sadly, both of my alma maters—Florida A&M University (hazing) and now Temple University—are embroiled in crisis. These emergencies have emerged in the midst of joyous anniversaries: 125 years of existence this year at FAMU and 25 years of the doctoral program in AAS at Temple in 2013.

As Temple is about to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the nation’s first African-American Studies doctoral program, its AAS department is reeling without a permanent chair, without plans to hire a permanent chair. This state of affairs has left the “department in a state of uncertainty,” to use the students’ words.