ATLANTA
Dr. Joseph Richardson, an assistant professor of African-American studies at the University of Maryland, hardly ever gets to see other Black men in graduate programs at his school. Naturally, he attended the Brothers of the Academy think tank held last week at Morehouse College, but he has much higher expectations for the think tank beyond meeting up with other scholars of color.
“People get together at other think tanks and talk about African-American issues for just an hour during some panel that’s part of a larger conference,” Richardson says. “This one dedicates days. But while Black scholars get to see each other and see how many of us are actually out there working on these issues, I hope more comes of this think tank.”
Black scholars from around the country gathered in Atlanta for three days to discuss a plethora of subjects, including K-12 education in the era of No Child Left Behind, attracting Black children to math and sciences and tenure and promotion issues for Black scholars. The think tank, co-sponsored by Sisters of the Academy and The Center for African American Research & Policy, a research arm under BOTA, was the organization’s second such event.
“Just like the Million Man March, if there is no long-term plan or agenda to it, then it’s pointless to have a think tank,” Richardson says. “The think tank’s mission should be on issues that specifically impact African-American men. It should become the go-to organization for data and analysis on African-American men. Right now there is no place providing that information, and this think tank can fill that void.”
BOTA’s primary objective is to nurture collaborate scholarship and to increase the number of Black tenure-track scholars. Its overarching goal is to publish research and scholarship that improves the economic, political and social status of Black people.
One of the organization’s founders, Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, a professor of psychology at the University of Memphis, hopes that participants do more than use the think tank as a place to connect with other scholars. He wants them to take knowledge back to their communities. “This isn’t a conference where people come together, meet and greet,” he says. “We have brought together experts from all the disciplines, like education, public health, clinical and social psychology.
