Africana Studies Honored for Innovative Work

The National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) recently awarded the University of Cincinnati’s

Department of Africana Studies

its Sankore Institutional Award for outstanding contributions to the development of Africana studies. The award was presented in March at the organization’s 36th annual conference in Atlanta.

The NCBS lauded UC’s Department of Africana Studies for its financial support of the professional organization’s 2011 annual conference in Cincinnati and the department’s housing of the NCBS national office. NCBS President Sundiata Cha-Jua, a specialist in African-American history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted UC’s commitment to the dual mission of Africana studies – academic excellence and social responsibility – and called the scholar-activist model, which undergirds the department’s proposed PhD program, a cutting-edge framework for the field of study as a whole.

Africana Studies Department Head Terry Kershaw was the editor of the NCBS’ refereed journal, International Journal of Africana Studies, and served as the organization’s vice president from 2010 to 2012. Kershaw says the NCBS honor enhances the department’s national reputation and further promotes its innovative contributions to the discipline.

“This award further promotes our department as an attractive destination for faculty and grad students who are interested in Africana studies in general and the scholar-activist approach in particular,” Kershaw says.