Emory University in Atlanta has announced the launch of a Ph.D. program in African American studies. It is the first such doctoral program in the southeastern United States. Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor and chair of the African American studies department, announced that the first cohort of students will begin the program in the fall of 2023.
Emory hopes to enroll four new Ph.D. students in African Amerian studies each year. All Ph.D. students will be fully funded for five years with an annual stipend of at least $31,000, a tuition remission, and health insurance. Though each student is guaranteed funding and support for five years, funding for a sixth year — if needed — will be possible.
The African American studies Ph.D. program will be a highly selective course of study combining the expertise of an esteemed group of more than 50 core and affiliated graduate faculty. The program aims to provide rigorous training and preparation for Ph.D. students interested in careers within and outside of academe. According to the university, the new program is organized around the four pillars upon which African American studies as a field rests: interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, community engagement, and transnationalism. In addition, each student enrolled in the program will receive specialized training in African American studies through one of three cognate fields: Gender & Sexuality, Social Justice & Social Movements, and Expressive Arts & Cultures.
Dr. Anderson, who earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University, is the author of several books including her latest work The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). An earlier book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, 2016), won the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
A fully funded African American Studies graduate program will definitely be a draw for the best and the brightest. I’m looking forward to hearing good things about it.