Africana studies program awarded grant to promote discussion, service

Faarah Ameerally, ’18, speaks in her class, Challenges of Global Hip Hop on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 in Packard. The Africana Studies program recently received a grant to help expand the program. (Darcy Marmolejos/B&W photo)

The Africana studies program has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to promote and develop new programs. This grant is a three-to-one matching grant, which means Lehigh will have to raise $1.5 million over the next five years for the Africana studies program.

The program was awarded the grant after developing a proposal. Professors Susan Kart and Monica Miller worked as the principle investigators of the grant along with the director of Africana studies, Professor James Peterson.

The proposal took a few months to draft, and it is based on previous accomplishments of the Africana studies.

Part of the evaluation process assess if an institution will be able to meet the demands of the challenge and raise the money. Peterson said he is confident that Lehigh alumni, friends in the community and partners in corporate America as well as other funding entities have put Lehigh in a position to raise the money.

While he is confident the money can be raised, Peterson said there is still a great amount of work that lies ahead to reach the goal. There will be meetings to explain why there should be contributions to this effort as well as why its important for Lehigh to be public facing, especially in the humanities.

When the money is raised, which will be $2 million, it will become an endowment for the Africana studies program, Peterson said. That endowment will then be used specifically for public humanities efforts such as large programs where the community members and students go out into the community to serve.

“People who are giving to the NEH grant are supporting the community in this area and enhancing the Lehigh brand as an institution of higher learning that’s critically engaged in the community,” Peterson said.

The funds from the grant will be used to expand the Africana studies program in several ways. One of the missions is to continue the work the program has been involved with in public humanities over the past few years by continuing to offer dynamic courses on campus that wrestle with social justice issues and engage in community service, Peterson said.

The Africana studies is looking to ultimately increase their ranks among the faculty, so there will be better resources for more enhanced public programs. Once this is completed, they will then have to identify additional funding and grant support and start the process over, Peterson said.

Two students in the Africana studies program said they hope the grant money will assist students with travel expenses.

Lyasha Bishop, ’17, is the vice president of the Africana Studies Student Association. She said that declared majors and minors in the department have had opportunities to attend conferences, study abroad and conduct research, and she hopes students will not have to rely on other sources for money to participate.

“It would be great if students in ASSA could use this funding to travel to Africana conferences and be able to apply what they learned to their own studies,” Bishop said.

Karen Valerio, ’17, is an Africana studies major who would like to see the program branch out to the College of Business and Economics and P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, and allow those students to attend more events in the Africana program.

“The grant will be able to make more opportunities for students interested in learning more about Africana studies and what it’s all about,” Valerio said.

Valerio also would like to see the grant assist in study abroad or research ventures in places like Africa for hands-on learning.