A target in the 1990s culture wars, Temple’s venerable African American studies department enters its third decade beset by a lingering faculty rift.
Since completing his Ph.D. in African American studies at Temple University in 1998 and joining the Howard University Afro-American studies department in 2001, Dr. Greg Carr has helped steer about a dozen Howard students to Temple’s graduate program in African American studies. Carr’s advocacy underscores his conviction that the Black studies program at Temple remains among the best in the academy.
“What students have at Temple is the ability to extend themselves intellectually and the space to pursue the development of the discipline,” Carr says.
At San Diego State University, Dr. Adisa Alkebulan, a Ph.D. alumnus of Temple’s African American studies department, has also advised and steered students to the Temple program. But in recent years he has grown hesitant to do so because he believes the department’s leadership has not fought for a coherent and sustainable vision for Black studies that ensures respect and adequate institutional support for students and faculty.
“I’m struggling with whether or not to continue to encourage students to go to Temple because current students are having a very difficult time because of the lack of leadership, because of the lack of support from the college and university. I’m very troubled by the state of the department,” says Alkebulan, associate professor of Africana studies at San Diego State University and executive director of the Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement.
It’s been 21 years since the nation’s first Ph.D. program in African American studies was established at Temple University. One of only 10 university departments in the U.S. that trains doctoral students in Black studies, the Temple program is the top producer of Ph.D. recipients in the field with 160 doctoral graduates, according to department chair Dr. Nathaniel Norment.
“Many of the people that we have produced have been hired to help develop programs and departments and to bring that foundation of the discipline to particular programs,” Norment says.
