The Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) is an intellectual community that bridges scholarship, teaching, and public life.
We envision the project of African American Studies as a multi-disciplinary enterprise. Our faculty employ an array of theoretical approaches and methodological strategies to examine historical and contemporary formations in black culture, politics, and society.
Our Team
Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
Professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies
Assistant Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
History
July 1993 - Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) is an academic resource center established by Dr. Manning Marable.
October 8-9, 1993 - IRAAS First Conference. "Politics and Theory in the Black World Project: Dialogue on Politics and Theory in the Black World".
November 30, 1993 - IRAAS First Public Dialogue. Public dialogue featuring bell hooks, Author, Activist and Professor of Womens Studies, Oberlin College.
Fall 1994 - IRAAS First Journal. Our first journal, Race and Reason, was started in fall 1994. Produced annually for four years. Race and Reason highlighted the various activities of the Institute and presented contemporary research in the field of African-American Studies.
November 2, 1994 - First Conversation in a Series. The start of the Conversations Series at IRAAS with speaker, Curtis Stokes, Michgan State University on "The Crisis in African-American Leadership".
June 1997 - African-American Delegation to Cuba. In June 1997, IRAAS sponsored a delegation of African-American scholars and writers on a nine-day research mission to Cuba. The goal of the delegation was to engage in a critical exchange between Black Americans and representatives of Cuban cultural, academic and governmental institutions. There were four major themes of concern which the delegation addressed; the changing role of race and the status of Afro-Cubans within society; issues of gender and the status of Cuban women; the socioeconomic impact of market-oriented policies and the growth of private investment; and debates about human rights; political pluralism; and the future role of the Cuban Communist Party.
September 22, 1998 - First Public Lecture with a Head of State. The speaker was Her Excellency, Janet Jagan, President of Guyana and she presented on "New and Restored Democracies: The Guyana Experience".
January 1999 - Souls, a quarterly interdisciplinary journal. The Insitute initiated a far more ambitious publication project, Souls, a quarterly interdisciplinary journal that maps the broad boundaries of scholarship and intellectual debates in the contemporary Black experience: the current studies in recent Black history, politics, socioenomomic research, social theory and culture. Produced in the spirit of the intellectual activism of W.E.B. DuBois. Souls presents creative and challenging interpretations of the key issues now being confronted by scholars of modern Black America, Africa and the Caribbean. Under the editorial direction of Manning Marable and managing editor Cheryll Y. Greene, a veterean book and magazine publishing professional, the journal brings together traditional scholars and representatives of public and private institutions, to engage in official conversations about the meaning and reality of Black life in the United States and beyond. The editorial advisory board consists of Dennis Brutus, Johnnetta B. Cole, George Frederickskon, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sonia Sanchez, Cornel West, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
Fall 1999 - Master of Arts Program started
Summer 2001 - IRAAS Launched the Malcolm X Project. The project principally includes the development of a web-based, critically annotated, multimedia verson of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It will provide interactive electronic presentations of Malcolm X's writings, historical documents and speeches; audio and video.
April 2003 - IRAAS Conference. "Africana Studies against Criminal Injustice".
July 1, 2003 - Farah Jasmine Griffin is named the director of IRAAS
Fall 2003 - First Center in IRAAS Established: Center for Contemporary Black Hisotry (CCBH) - The Center for Contemporary Black History (CCBH). The Center for Contemporary Black History (CCBH) promotes the critical study of black history, culture and politics within urban American since 1900, with an emphasis on understnding the central role of black intellectuals and public leaers in the making of modern society. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the Center utilizes the educational and research tools of both traditional disciplines and new media technology to organize and enrich the study of Contemporary black American History.
CCBH housed three intitials: (1) the Malcolm X Project, which is currently developing a Multimedia Study Environment version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, (2) the Africana Criminal Justice Project, examining crime and justice in black intellectual and social history and addressing the impact of mass incarceration on black civic capacity and participation; and (3) Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politicis, Culture and Society; published quarterly with Taylor and Francis Publishers.
October 2-3, 2003 - IRAAS 10th Anniversary Conference."Rethinking Black Studies - Beyond the Boundaries Making New Connections".
July 1, 2006 - Steven Gregory is named the director of IRAAS
July 1, 2008 - Farah Jasmin Griffin is named the director of IRAAS
July 1, 2009 - Fred Harris is named the director of IRAAS
April 28, 2010 - Second Black Faculty Dinner Hosted by IRAAS. Second Black Faculty Dinner hosted by IRAAS honoring Dean Michelle Moody-Adams and Provost Claude Steele. Mayor David Dinkins delivers the welcome address.
Spring 2011 - IRAAS Conference. "Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, An International Conference".
April 1, 2011 - IRAAS Founding Director, Manning Marable, Dies. (May 13, 1950 - April 1, 2011).
April 16, 2012 - Dr. Marable's Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by the late Manning Marable Receives Publitzer Prize.
April 26-29, 2012 - The Manning Marable Memorial Conference. "A New Vision of Black Freedom: Reinvigorating Social Theory Redefining Political Struggle".
July 1, 2013 - Marcellus Blount and Carl Hart named Co-Directors of IRAAS
Fall 2013 - IRAAS Conference. "Challenging Punishment - Race, the People's Health and the War on Drugs".
November 1, 2013 - IRAAS 20th Anniversary Symposium
Fall 2013 - Second Center in IRAAS created. Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS), director Josef Sorett.
July 1, 2014 - Samuel Roberts named director of IRAAS
October 23-24, 2014 - IRAAS Conference. "Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality Conference".
Spring 2015 - Third center in IRAAS created. Center for Race, Philosophy and Social Justice, director, Robert Gooding-Williams
July 2015 - IRAAS Launches Summer Teachers and Scholars Institute (STSI)