Sixty Years of African Studies at Howard University

Howard serves as an institution of higher education for people of African descent with an enduring commitment to education and research. In defining its primary mission of upholding social justice, a former president of the university, James Cheek noted that “some universities may claim to be neutral, as Harvard does, on the great moral and social issues in our society, but not Howard University.” To underscore the university’s broader mission he stated: “Our institution is in the business of not only educating but also liberating; of not only discovering but also reconstructing; we are in the business of undoing the yoke of bondage.” And at the core of this mission have been Africa and the African World. Scholars in the institution laid down the building blocks of the African Studies interdisciplinary paradigm. Among the pioneers in the field at Howard was Melvin Herskovits who took part in the 1929 Howard sponsored a conference on Africa. Decades of teaching, research and engagements in issues pertaining to Africa culminated in the formal establishment in 1953 of an African Studies research program. In 1969 the academic commitment to the area was elevated to a graduate level making Howard the first university to offer a Ph.D. in African Studies. Sixty years of African Studies at Howard is being celebrated to honor this rich tradition and renew commitments to the field for the coming decades. The panel seeks to share the legacy and continued vision in a scholarly discourse with the esteemed members of the association.