I would like to thank you all for a marvelous job. Over the next few
days..I will be sharing portions of the review document as it is written
and developed. I would ask that you review it for substantive,
corrections, and additions. Through your efforts this will benefits us
all.. Again, thanks for all your help up to this point:
intro and first set of questions:
Black World Studies (BWS) exists as a consequence of student, faculty
and the administration concurring that such a pedagogical experience
would be “relevant to both their needs and . . . Miami University(‘s)”.
The 1995 Program Review of BWS concluded that the courses offered by BWS
were rigorous, contemporary and contributes “in important ways to the
emphasis on diversity at Miami University. . . . The Black World Studies
program makes important contributions to the academic life of the
University. It is strong belief of the APRC that those contributions
could be substantially increased with additional support for the
program.” The Provosts, at that time, concurred and stated that BWS is
central to the liberal arts mission of the University . . . makes
important contributions to the Miami Plan”.
How has the unit responded to the recommendations in the previous
review? How has the unit changed and evolved since the previous review?
There were several issues that were raised by the last program review
of BWS. These issues were “Visibility of program should be enhanced.
BWS to
develop a brochure advertising the major and minor. Cross list more
courses. The Deans Office was charged with exploring joint
appointments. Ad hoc group to be appointed by the Provost to find ways
to facilitate teaching across departments.” Each of these issues will
be discussed sequentially below.
1. Visibility of Program
BWS has been quite successful at improving the visibility of the
Program. These efforts are:
1) Co-sponsoring Speakers and conferences.
a. Edwidge Danticat Author/ With French and Italian and English
b. Symposium on Africa and Italia 1998 which also produced an
edited volume Africa Italia: Due continenti si avgvicinano edited by
Sante Matteo and Stefano Bellucci (prominently on the acknowledgment
page is recognition of BWS along with others).
c. Annual co-sponsoring of Women's history and Black history month
celebrations
d. Co-sponsored with English lecture by Prof. Emily Bartels of
Rutgers, February 1999, “Images of Africa in Renaissance English
Literature”
e. Cosponsored with English Department and others,
lecture/multi-media presentation by Professor Mae Henderson “Josephine
Baker: Exotic Prim and Modernists Icon”, March, 1999.
f. Encouraged BWS joint and affiliate professors to participate
in Read in Chain King Library (1998-2000)
g. Participation in Laws Hall Underground Railroad project, lecture
and wrote article for their Newsletter. (1999)
h. BWS Director was panelist on NPR Sept. 1999. listening
audience 2,000,000 nationally.
i. Numerous articles and presentations by BWS faculty. (Discussed more
fully below)
j. Local News Paper Articles featuring and detailing Black World
Studies, March 2000/April 2000
k. With Women's Studies Program - helped develop, co-sponsored
Symposium and Lecture Series on Race and Gender. This series has brought
keynote speakers Angela Davis (1999) and Octavia Butler (2000)
l. Plans to have above papers from Symposium to be special
issue of Miami publication ‘Excellence in College Teaching”
m. BWS web page developed , featuring and promoting BWS.
(see: http://www.cas.muohio.edu/~bwsweb/)
n. The Ghana Summer program which pulls faculty and students from
Division of Business and Education as well as Arts and Science faculty
and students. (see Appendix and BWS web page above)
o. The Brazil summer program (co-sponsored with Latin American Studies
Program and Anthropology)
p. we have increased the number of Affiliates to include those
in Fine Arts, the Western Program, and Education.
q. BWS to be part of new Center on World and American Culture.
2. We have developed a new Brochure - see attached.
3. Cross list more courses
a) 24 courses now cross-listed (see attached BWS Brochure)
b) New ones developed BWS/POL … African American Politics,
c) HST/BWS History of Race, EDU/BWS African American Family.
4. Joint appointments.
a) Two joint appointments in division of Education and allied
professions ( Susan Mosely-Howard and Othello Harris), three new
assistant professors joint appointments on regional campuses (B. Camara
– French/ Italian- hired two years ago, on Middletown campus. S. Brown
White - COMM. and M. Christian- SGA, hired on the Hamilton Campus 1 year
ago.) and one senior professor – joint appointment on the Oxford Campus
Gwen Etter-Lewis, (Professor, joint with WMS and department of English-
Oxford campus).
5. Provost to establish an Adhoc committee to appointed to find ways
to facilitate teaching across departments. She stated that “We simply
are not open enough on teaching exchanges and we must find ways of
addressing this deficiency.”
a) Status. Unknown.
As BWS begins this review cycle, it may be instructive to note that
there is an extensive paper trail documenting the growth and the
problems of the program over the past 30 years. As one reads these
pages, one is impressed with the promise and the dilemmas that have
historically been associated with BWS throughout its tenure at Miami
University. For example, one of the biggest fears expressed by Dr.
Marian E. Musgrave in her 1984-85 Program Review was that “The gravest
dangers. . . were that poor students were often drawn to the program,
turning get into a ‘flunkers’ retreat’” A review of BWS 10 years later
concluded that such fears were ill- advised and noted that our graduates
had been quite successful in obtaining admissions into graduate schools
from Duke to New York University with fields of study ranging from law
to medicine. Data from that study also indicates that the majority of
the majors and many of the minors had gone on to graduate study. It was
concluded that “Perhaps the success of the graduates of the program is
reflective of the fact that the current undergraduates emphasized to the
Review Team that the classes in Black World Studies program especially
demanded Critical Thinking.”
BWS has continued its record of excellence into this current cycle of
review. The purpose of this document is to highlight this excellence
particularly as it relates to the issues of – quality and viability.
Questions related to these issues constitute the substance of this
review.
From its inception in 1970 to 1990, only 1 major and 2 minors
matriculated through BWS. From 1990 to 1995 a total of 48 majors had
matriculated. And most recently we have a total of 50 majors and minors
that have competed their studies since 1996. This means that, although
on average only 10 majors and minors show up on the official lists, we
tend to have another 20-30 what could be called silent or hidden majors
and minors. More specifically, it appears that many students wait till
their senior year (or the semester they are graduating) to declare their
major or minor in BWS. While the constancy of BWS as a viable course of
study to our students is to be applauded, we realize that we must expand
these numbers. One of the goals of BWS over the next 5 years will be to
take better advantage of our regional campuses and utilize our joint
appointments there to enhance the numbers of majors and minors.
Currently, with one joint appointment in Middletown and two in Hamilton,
is not unreasonable to expect increases in our base of between 10 and 20
students. Further, the Oxford campus with the addition of 3 joint
appointments should also be able to attract another 20 students.
Therefore it is the goal of BWS within 5 years to have a base of majors
and minors of between 40 and 60 students.
--
For more of my poetry please check out
http://gw.cas.muohio.edu/umoja/www.ulbobo.com/umoja/index.html
also a new series ..the art of love the the emotionally impaired can be
found at:
http://communities.msn.com/TheArtofLovefortheEmotionallyImpaired/_whatsnew.msnw
umoja
only when lions have historians will hunting cease to be glorified
rodneyc..
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