Interdepartmental Program Proposal


Department of English | Department of Hispanic Studies | Department of History

Proposal for an Interdepartmental Program in
Race, Ethnicity, and Civic Identities of the Americas


The study of race, ethnicity, and civic identities is a dynamic and broadly influential aspect of contemporary academic scholarship, very much in the forefront of research in the humanities and the social sciences. This groundbreaking work is at its best truly interdisciplinary. It draws on and fuses the methodologies of social history, literary analysis, cultural studies, and historical sociology to explore the production of racial and ethnic categories, the structure and maintenance of national identities, the practices of citizenship, and the ways that race, ethnicity, and civic identities are linked with other social categories such as gender, class, and sexuality. This scholarship challenges long-held assumptions about power and identity in the United States and throughout the Americas, and it has been at the center of current debates over diversity and multiculturalism.

Through the widely praised and influential work of faculty in the Departments of English, History, and Hispanic Studies, the University of Kentucky has already established a national and international reputation as a source of excellent work on race, ethnicity, and civic identities.

Among other scholars, Dana Nelson, Yolanda Pierce, Armando José Prats, Steven Weisenberger, Ronald Dathorne, and Dale Bauer in English and Joanne Melish, Francie Chassen-Lopez, Gerald Smith, Pat Cooper, and Kathi Kern in History are engaged in research in this area, using a variety of analytic, comparative, and theoretical approaches, working on a range of different historical periods, exploring social movements, historical events, literary texts, films, and popular publications. With the 1999 hiring of Enrico Mario Santí as one of the Bryant Chairs, and through a restructuring of the doctoral program that requires graduate study in related fields beyond departmental boundaries, the Department of Hispanic Studies has clearly become a national leader in the area of interdisciplinary studies of gender, nationality, border studies, identity and ethnicity in Spanish America and within the Latino population of the U.S. Faculty engaged in this area of scholarship, in addition to Santí, include Susan Carvalho, Susan Larson, Nivia Montenegro, Dianna Niebylski, Yanira Paz, Ana Rueda, Edward Stanton, and Sherry Velasco. These faculty, like their colleagues in English and History, play vital roles in UK's major interdisciplinary programs, including Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, African American Studies, Appalachian Studies, Women's Studies, and Social Theory. The commitment of resources to a program in race, ethnicity, and civic identities will thus strengthen investments UK has already made in English, History, and Hispanic Studies, in its interdisciplinary programs, and in the hiring of distinguished faculty like Patricia Hill Collins.

We are convinced that the most effective way to consolidate and strengthen current faculty resources and to put the University of Kentucky at the forefront of this increasingly prominent area of scholarship is for UK to commit funds to a fully interdepartmental initiative that involves English, History, and Hispanic Studies working together to create an innovative program in race, ethnicity, and civic identities in the Americas. (We will also make every effort to involve other active researchers like Rich Schein in Geography and other units where faculty are studying related topics, like the Colleges of Education and Fine Arts and the Departments of Sociology, Political Science, and Anthropology.) Such a program will move beyond traditional American Studies models that focus narrowly on the United States (or solely on race). What we seek to encourage is a highly visible program of collaborative and cross-disciplinary research and teaching. Such a program, involving English, History, and Hispanic Studies will greatly enhance all three of UK's top-tier humanities departments, encouraging joint research projects and shared symposia and serving as an important way of attracting top-rank graduate students who seek the opportunity to work outside traditional departmental lines.

To achieve these important ends we request substantial support from the University that will enable us to consolidate, encourage, and expand UK's highly successful research and teaching efforts in an area that we see as essential for the twentieth-first century public research university, for our individual departments, and for the humanities and social sciences at large. The University of Kentucky is poised to become a leading institution in this critical area, a move which will greatly enhance our quest for top-twenty status and at the same time will be of inestimable value to our undergraduate and graduate students and therefore to the citizens who will shape the future of the Commonwealth.

Our proposal advances the most critical of the University of Kentucky's priorities, including:

  • Enhancing UK's standing as a leading public research institution, a ranking which in our disciplines depends virtually entirely on the quality and reputation of the faculty.

  • Enriching undergraduate and graduate teaching at UK.

  • Enhancing UK's ability to attract talented scholars and students of color who work in fields associated with race and ethnicity.

  • Enhancing the ability of faculty to win humanities funding from sources such as the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

  • Improving the education of prospective K-12 teachers on matters concerning race, ethnicity, diversity, and multiculturalism.

  • Contributing to the Commonwealth's understanding of race, ethnicity, and civic identities, including debates on public policy and education.
  • Promoting the internationalization of the campus.


Funding requests

2002-2003

  • Faculty positions

    • Our key need is faculty resources. Additional faculty in this area mean that we will be able to attract better graduate students, provide a full range of courses (including relevant USP courses) for undergraduates, and stand a better chance of retaining the faculty we now have. For the first year of what we envision to be a three-year commitment we propose to hire a new advanced assistant or beginning associate professor in each of our departments. At current salary levels, new faculty at this level would have an annual salary of approximately $60-65,000. We seek innovative, interdisciplinary scholars who will be hired specifically to realize the large ambitions of the proposed Program in Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Identities.

    1. The Department of English seeks to hire an up-and-coming scholar in film and media studies who has published extensively and taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in, for example, African American film, ethnicity and cinema, and national identities in the Americas. In this way we hope to continue to address a long-standing demand for more courses in these areas at all levels of instruction, to fill the needs of our newly revised undergraduate curriculum (which includes 200-level courses in, for example, place and identity), and to encourage the interdepartmental work that we see as essential for this proposal and for the future of the English Department.

    2. The Department of History proposes to make an appointment in the field of race and racial identity. The department envisions hiring a scholar with a firm command of the latest work in critical race theory and race in popular culture and able to make immediate contributions to an interdisciplinary program.
    3. The Department of Hispanic Studies proposes to add a faculty position at the advanced assistant or beginning associate level, with a specialization in studies of national identity in the postcolonial Spanish American context. This person would round out the department's current specializations in cultural studies and feminist theory, would be able to spearhead the department's continued development of Latino-U.S. studies, and would enhance the program's existing undergraduate- and graduate-level connections with the departments of Anthropology, Sociology, and Geography as well as Women's Studies, Latin American Studies, and Social Theory.

2003-2004

  • Symposium: The Americas: Race, Ethnicity, and Civic Identity

    • To publicize and formally begin UK's interdepartmental program in race, ethnicity, and civic identities on campus, in the Commonwealth, and nationally, we will host a conference organized around the theme of "The Americas: Race, Ethnicity, and Civic Identity." The proceedings of this event will be published in the very highly regarded journal, American Literary History, housed in the English Department since 1999. (ALH has a long tradition of publishing scholars in US history and Spanish writing in the Americas, as well as American literary scholars.). This symposium will include ten participants whose work is devoted to thinking through the keywords of our conference and who can speak across as well as within disciplines. There will be a balance between senior scholars of national reputation and very promising late assistant and early associate professors. Not only would such an event give our graduate students and UK faculty the chance to meet with scholars whose works have proven important to them, but it would also provide the opportunity for our undergraduates to learn about the kind of national-level research that connects with their own classes.

    The expenses for this kind of program would be approximately $25,000: $2000 per participant for travel, accommodations, and fees; $5000 for advertising, mailings, social events, and incidental expenses.

  • Faculty Positions

    1. Entry-level assistant professor in English in contemporary literary studies, with a specialization in African American, African Diaspora, or critical race theory.

    2. Entry-level assistant professor in History with training in one or more of the following fields: Latin America, Caribbean, Asia-American, or Latino studies.

    3. Entry-level assistant professor in Hispanic Studies in Afro-Hispanic or Afro-Brazilian cultural and literary studies.


2004-2005

  • Public Colloquia

    • In 2004-5 we will organize a series of public interdisciplinary round-table discussions throughout the year showcasing the new faculty working on race, ethnicity, and civic identities in the Americas.

  • Graduate Fellowships

    • Three fellowships designated for students working on race, ethnicity, and civic identity.


Budget

2002-3 Three advanced assistants or beginning associate professors 180,000
2003-4 Symposium: The Americas: Race, Ethnicity, and Civic Identity 25,000
Three entry-level assistant professors 150,000
2004-5 Three graduate fellowships 45,000