Institutionalizing Black Studies at the University of California

Abstract

Three campuses of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Santa Barbara, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)—provide a case study of the proposition that Black Studies is most successful as a program or research center rather than a department. The “Yale program model” was financially supported by the Ford Foundation, which was mainly concerned with the perceived academic legitimacy of Black Studies. The field, however, has moved toward the department model that emphasized identity and oppositional space. The latter model has permitted Black Studies units to develop graduate programs that ensure the longevity of the field and generate innovation.