Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2016
The national survey of African studies faculty conducted in the fall of 2002 has produced a wide range of findings about how faculty view African studies. We asked faculty members for their views on area studies and African studies at their own institutions, their recruitment and training in African studies, their teaching of African studies and study of African languages, study-abroad programs and training for the next generation of African studies scholars, their own careers, interactions with the U.S. government, and much more. Because we took great care to construct a sample frame that broadly replicates African studies programs in the United States, we feel confident that our findings mirror attitudes held by the entire African studies population. Because our survey was large enough, we are able to tease out different attitudes and orientations toward African studies from many different populations: by type of program, size of program, scholarly discipline, faculty rank, race/ethnicity, gender, and numerous other characteristics.
1. “Identifying New Directions for African Studies” has been ably supported by students and staff associated with the Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) at the University of Connecticut. In particular, we want to thank Kenneth Dautrich, director of CSRA; Chase Harrison, sampling statistician; Andrew Fournier, project manager; Abdoulaye Diop, project manager; and Ashley M. Fox, research assistant. Dautrich, in particular, deserves special thanks for his patience in trying to understand the hostility of the African Studies Association board toward open academic research.
2. The survey results soon will be publicly available at the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut and at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan to anyone interested in using the data for further exploration and analysis.