The University of Texas' Newest (Non-Football) Addition

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Yesterday the University of Texas at Austin announced the creation of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. The new department will focus on African Americans, indigenous Africans and people of African descent around the world with an affiliated institute focusing on urban policy.

UT enters new academic territory with the department's creation. "It's a major step forward," Anthropology Professor Edmund T. Gordon said of the new department, which he will chair. "These types of programs are very rare. It will be the only Black studies department in Texas and, when established, the only Ph.D.-offering program in the south and southwest."

Formally established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in November 2009, the department is preparing to hire faculty and will begin classes in the fall 2010 semester. Initially, only bachelor's degrees will be offered, with master's and doctoral degrees to follow upon approval from the Board.

UT currently offers a bachelor's degree in African American Studies through the John L. Warfield Center for African and African African American Studies. However once the new department is operational, it will assume and expand the center's classroom teaching responsibilities. The center will continue operating, but shift to a broader role overseeing programs, lectures, faculty and student research, community collaborations and other cultural and educational opportunities at UT.

"The important part of the process up until now was keeping our eyes on the prize," said Warfield Center Director and Theatre and Dance Professor Omi Osun Joni L. Jones. "To create what we're beginning to imagine is thrilling."

UT alumnus Joe Jamail (of Joe Jamail Field and Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center) has made a gift of $1 million to fund an endowed chair in the department.