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From
the Director
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Timothy Longman
Director |
As I assume the position of Director, I am humbled by the long history and strong reputation of the African Studies Center here at Boston University. Now entering its 56th year, the ASC was among the first African studies programs in the United States, and it has remained a leader and innovator in the field of African studies throughout its history. (Read “Boston University’s African Studies Center: A Historical Sketch,” by Associate Director Jim McCann).
The Walter Rodney Seminar series has presented lectures by some of the top Africanist scholars for two decades, while BU’s graduate students have organized the Graduate Research Conference in African Studies for 17 years. Our Outreach Program has led the way in promoting teaching about Africa in K-12 schools, and our Publications Program has earned respect for its working papers and the International Journal of African Historical Studies. Today, the ASC continues to boast a world-class faculty, offering a rich education in African studies to students in a wide range of disciplines. The impressive quality of our current faculty is demonstrated by the fact that two books by ASC faculty (Parker Shipton’s The Nature of Entrustment and Linda Heywood and John Thornton’s Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundations of the Americas) shared the Herskovits Award for the best book in African studies at the 2008 African Studies Association annual meeting.
While appreciating the African Studies Center’s strong academic tradition, I am also inspired by the great potential that exists for the continued growth and expansion of ASC programs into the future. After 25 years at 270 Bay State Road, we have just moved into a beautifully remodeled new space at 232 Bay State Road. (Photos to come of new space...). We hope that our new space, with its many seating areas and meeting spaces, can become an even more welcoming location for the African studies community at BU and beyond. We continue to expand our classroom offerings. At a time when many colleges and universities are cutting back, BU continues to hire new faculty and staff. We continue to develop new and innovative research programs, like the Agroecology of Maize and Malaria project that includes professors from history, public health, geographic information systems, and archeology conducting coordinated research.
Some of the goals I have for the ASC over the next year or two include:
- Raising the profile of the ASC within the Boston area and beyond.
- Expanding our programming for undergraduates, including developing an undergraduate major in conjunction
with the African American Studies Program.
- Developing stronger linkages in Africa, including developing opportunities to study African languages abroad
and potentially expanding the study abroad options in Africa.
- Improving our communication with alumni.
Please contact me if you have ideas or suggestions for how the ASC can better serve the community of African studies scholars at BU, in the Boston area, and beyond.
In closing, I would like to thank Jim McCann for serving as Director Ad Interim last year. He will be staying on as Associate Director for Development, providing insight drawn from his long experience of leading the ASC.
Tim Longman
September 2009
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