The University of Rochester’s Board of Trustees approved the creation of a Department of Black Studies in Arts, Sciences & Engineering. The new academic department will work in close collaboration with the University’s Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies, which was established in 1986.
At the formal announcement during Meliora Weekend in October, University President Sarah Mangelsdorf said, “Today, the University of Rochester joins the community of institutions that embrace Black life, Black culture, and Black issues as very serious subjects of academic study. This is an important and necessary step as we work toward being a global research university of the future.”
Until now, the institute, which is part of the School of Arts & Sciences, incorporated faculty who had primary appointments in other departments. The Department of Black Studies, however, will be able to hire faculty fully committed to its mission. That will result in a greater focus on the study and research of issues central to the institute.
Read the source article at rochester.edu
