The Department's Core Values are:
Intellectual Rigor,
Interdisciplinarity,
Inclusiveness and Service.
Mission Statement and Objectives
The aim is to create an African American Studies department that is guided by the Presidential Mission Statement (especially the requirements of civility, distinctiveness, community engagement, commitment to student engagement), supportive of the emerging general education curriculum, and responsive to the political, economic, and cultural developments that are taking place in the hemisphere.
This continuing process has included the articulation of a focused mission statement with measurable outcomes, a review and update of the curriculum, building strategic partnerships across the campus and the recruitment of new faculty. An essential element in the revitalization process is to provide the department with a mechanism. The African American Research and Service Institute to conduct interdisciplinary research and to be of service to the community.
The institute will be eminently placed to advance undergraduate research and, as a result, to make a significant contribution to student engagement. This includes a focus on the creation of an academic framework to support interdisciplinary curriculum development and research.
This also includes a vehicle by which students and faculty may investigate and develop scholarly philosophies concerning the black experience and agency across historical, cultural, social, economic, and political constructs, and an emphasis on implementation of a service agenda that allows students and faculty to both study and contribute to a variety of factors pertinent to African Americans and the African diaspora in other parts of the Americas.
It is also our understanding that an African American Diaspora exists in Europe and on other continents, where people of African ancestry from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe the Black Atlantic are contributing to the growth of the Black community in the United States. From this contemporary African American Studies must focus on this reality as it prepares the next generation of students for engagement in these environments.
The African American Research and Service Institute, an unit within the department, will help to develop and deliver an interdisciplinary research and service agenda that is responsive to the above-mentioned environmental factors. The institute will enhance Ohio University's visibility and reaffirm its historic leadership in the field. The institute will provide the Department with a mechanism to deliver its research and service mission, which includes the following:
- Rural America, especially the Ohio River Valley.
- The African Diaspora in the Americas.
- Constitutional law and social justice.
- The sociology of entertainment.
This mission in essence reinforces the current curricular emphases of the department. |
