It’s not every day that an academic department changes its name.
But a leading scholar at Temple University was successful in convincing university officials and the Board of Governors to rename the African American studies department to the Africology and African American studies department.
The name change, which occurred last year, represents an effort to distinguish Temple’s Black studies program from the dozens of other Black studies and African American studies programs in existence at universities across the nation.
But the name change also aligns with the scholarly research of Dr. Molefi Kete Asante—arguably the nation’s most recognized Afrocentric scholar—who has long advocated that the department which he chairs should have an African-centered identity.
For Asante, who founded the nation’s first doctoral program in Black studies at Temple University in 1985, the renaming signals an epistemological orientation—a way of knowing that centers on the arts, histories and experiences of Black people.
“We wanted to demonstrate that we’re not just about anything African. We’re about a different perspective, a different epistemology. We are about a different way of seeing,” said Asante. “This is the way to look at phenomena; a way to look at the world.”
There are currently six faculty in Africology and African American studies, many of whom use an Afrocentric approach to their research. For example, Dr. Ama Mazama penned a book that examines homeschooling from an African American perspective. Asante has authored more than 80 books.
