After 37 years as an interdisciplinary program, African-American Studies (AAS) will have a new home in the recently announced Center for African-American Studies. Over the past decade, the University has amassed an unrivaled faculty for African-American Studies — made even better by the fact that it was built at the expense of a certain college in Cambridge, Mass. It now includes many of the brightest stars in the field, including Professors Cornel West GS '80 and Kwame Anthony Appiah. We, the Editorial Board, applaud the decision to create this new center and see it as part of the larger and increasingly visible efforts by the University to foster an atmosphere of intellectual and cultural diversity on campus.
The benefits of a Department of African-American Studies are twofold. First, the creation of a new faculty center will doubtless attract more leading scholars in the field — perhaps even the elusive Henry Louis Gates Jr. — to join the faculty, already considered one of the world's finest. Princeton has announced its intention to greatly expand the size of the AAS faculty. Second, Princeton's recognition of African-American Studies as a major field of study will have an impact on general attitudes toward the discipline across academia. As President Tilghman said of the new center, it will train "new generations of leaders to solve problems that have persisted too long, both in this country and abroad."
Some question the decision to make African-American Studies, treated by most academic institutions as an interdisciplinary subject and rarely awarded department-level status, a major field of study. We, however, believe that African-American history, culture and music are as old and rich as American history itself. While it might be foolhardy to allow students to concentrate in every interdisciplinary field, the unique importance of African-American Studies for the present moment more than justifies its new status. With 33 certificate students last year — an increase of nearly 70 percent since the program's inception — it is clear that students increasingly recognize the value of the program. At a time in which other African-American Studies programs are struggling to survive, the creation of a Center for African-American Studies is a profound statement of Princeton's status as a leader in both traditional and emerging academic fields.
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