Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) students will soon see Dr. Melanye Price – an alumna and newly named endowed professor – on campus when she returns to the historically Black university this spring.
Appointed by PVAMU president Dr. Ruth Simmons, Price will serve as Endowed Professor of Political Science and principal investigator for the university’s Mellon Foundation African American Studies Initiative. Price’s appointment marks a defining moment in her career as she returns to the institution that not only sparked her scholastic calling, but is on the verge of redefining what it means to teach African American Studies.
“I was formed into a scholar at Prairie View. My world was expanded there,” Price told Diverse in an interview. “The opportunity to do that for kids who come directly from the same communities as I came from, who graduated from the same high school I came from, who are so familiar to me … I feel like I’m keeping the legacy of the faculty who were there when I was there. It’s a huge responsibility, but I think it will be so rewarding.”
Price, a 1995 graduate of Prairie View, admits that she did not know if returning to serve at her alma mater would be possible. When the opportunity presented itself, “I knew I had to” take it, she said.
As principal investigator for the university-wide project titled “Enhancing the Humanities at PVAMU through an African-American Studies Program Initiative,” Price will bring influential thinkers, strategists, department chairs and alumni to campus to discuss what the university already has to offer and where the university can expand to become a “viable” program and model for others, she said.
The scholar will work with other officials to examine the university’s curriculum; elevate courses that highlight scholarship on the African Diaspora and African-American history and politics; figure out ways to get more students to enroll in existing courses; and notably, design courses for students to examine African-American connections to the sciences.
With this initiative, PVAMU leaders want students to leave knowing that “Black people’s fingerprints are on everything,” Price said.
