07.23.08
Deborah E. McDowell recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa
In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Anne Bromley, senior writer and editor for UVa Media Relations, we look at well-known writer, scholar and editor of African-American literature for both academic and general audiences, Deborah E. McDowell who was recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa.
Well-known writer, scholar and editor of African-American literature for both academic and general audiences, Deborah E. McDowell, was recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa.
The Woodson Institute, an interdisciplinary teaching and research center, was established in 1981 in response to student and faculty requests for a more coherent African-American and African Studies program and a more aggressive program of minority recruitment at the University. It is named after Carter Woodson, the “father of African-American history,” to honor the Virginia-born founder of African and African-American Studies who also inaugurated Black History Week (now Black History Month).
William B. Harvey, U.Va. Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity and a member of the institute’s advisory board, said her appointment is great for the University. “She is an outstanding scholar and a visionary leader. She has the qualities to make the Woodson Institute one of the best centers in the nation.”
The institute selects scholars working in the humanities and social sciences for two-year pre-doctoral or one-year postdoctoral fellowships. The program is intended to facilitate the completion of dissertations or manuscripts in African-American and African Studies and related fields. In addition to overseeing undergraduate majors and minors, the interdisciplinary institute sponsors pre- and postdoctoral fellowships and a visiting scholars program. About 120 graduate students have benefited from the fellowships.
Dr. Maurice Apprey, dean of the Office of African-American Affairs said, “McDowell is strongly motivated to advance the educational mission of the Woodson Institute, in ways that would propel the University into the forefront of African, Caribbean and African-American studies nationally. A professor of English with a strong interdisciplinary fund of knowledge and conceptual rigor, she is very much suited to promote the transfer of knowledge and methods of application that our undergraduate, graduate students and fellows need to succeed.”
McDowell, a member of UVa.’s English department faculty since 1987 and the Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Virginia said, “Over the years, we’ve had an impressive record of fellows moving to academic appointments here and elsewhere.” Her plans include doubling the number of fellowships per term from five to 10 next year and to go up to 12 the following year.
McDowell, who received her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University and her B.A. from Tuskegee University said, the institute has been allotted faculty positions dedicated to supplementing gaps in the curriculum, especially to better represent Africa. With the Department of Religious Studies, for instance, a concentration in religions of the African Diaspora is taking shape.
Another new program begun this year under McDowell is an occasional series, “Currents in Conversation,” which aims to bring together members of the University and the broader community to discuss a topic from current events. The first one followed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s speech in March about the campaign, “A More Perfect Union.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon… Join us next week when we look at the Walter A. Ridley Distinguished Lecture at the University of Virginia, held recently in the Rotunda’s Dome Room.