Liberal Arts college sets pilot fellowships in Africana Research Ctr.

Liberal Arts college sets pilot fellowships in Africana Research Ctr.

University Park, Pa. --- Beginning this fall, Penn State will initiate a three-year pilot fellowship program within the Africana Research Center (ARC) to focus on issues involving the African Diaspora.

Two post-doctoral fellows will be sponsored in the first year of the program, increasing to four fellows each in the second and third year. Penn State will be among the first state-funded institutions to begin such a program.

The purpose of the program is to expand research on issues pertaining to the African Diaspora and to help train outstanding junior scholars in these areas.

The post-doctoral program will include a series of regular seminars given by faculty inside and outside the Penn State community, including the resident fellows.

The ARC welcomes its first fellows this year. Jason E. Glenn, currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University this November, will begin as a fellow in the fall of 2005. His research areas include the history of race theory, medicine, criminology, and of the mind sciences. Mr. Glenn received his M.A. degree, in the history of science in 2001 from Harvard University and his B.A. degree in African and Afro-American studies and Euro-American history from Stanford University in 1996.

Erin D. Chapman is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of African American Studies and History, at Yale University. Her fields of expertise include 19th and 20th century African American and United States history, U.S. gender and women's history from antebellum to the present, the history of slavery, colonialism and the African disapora in the Atlantic world, and 20th century United State cultural history.

She received an M.A. degree in African American studies and history from Yale University in 2002 and a B.A. degree in history from Stanford University in 1999.

"One of the primary goals of this post-doctoral fellows program is to create an intellectual community on Black issues, where young emerging scholars will have an opportunity to develop professionally, through the mentorship of senior scholars," says Dr. Beverly Vandiver, director of the Africana Research Center. "Building an intellectual community is essential in recruiting, retaining, and ensuring the success of faculty engaged in Africana research, especially racial ethnic minority faculty."

"We are delighted to be a sponsor of this new program," says Dr. Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. "Our first fellows are outstanding young scholars who have much to offer the University. I look forward to their participation in the intellectual life of the Penn State community."

Dr. Philip Goff, assistant professor of psychology at Penn State, will coordinate the program for the ARC. The ARC will identify outstanding candidates from around the country. Selection will be made by a faculty committee, appointed by the dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and chaired by the ARC director.