The University is starting a new program dedicated to teaching and researching ways of understanding concepts of race, gender and nationhood.
The Ford Foundation donated a three-year grant of $300,000 to the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies for the new program.
Named the Center for the Study of Local Knowledge, the program is scheduled to open Nov. 14, although research already is underway. The program studies the effects of national identities on a local level.
The purpose of the Center is to "develop new research questions that employ new research methodologies that are inclusive of many different perspectives in both the academy and outside the academy," said Corey D. B. Walker, research assistant professor of African-American and African Studies and Center director.
"There are a number of research projects," Walker said. "Each project will develop new methodology."
One such project will directly question and study members of the community.
Third-year College student and research associate Priya P. Curtis said the programs are designed to find out what members of communities need.
The program then will provide these needs "in accordance to their lifestyles," Curtis said.
The program will find ways to diverge from universalized Western ideas and incorporate local ideas for the development of issues.By local, the program does not mean just the Albermarle region.Researchers are examining ideas applicable to other continents, and are working with locals in foreign areas.
History Prof. Reginald D. Butler and Woodson Institute Assoc. Director Scot A. French developed various questions to guide the research. These questions include "what is the role of lay scholars -- the many non-academic historians and genealogists who are often key resources for local communities?"
Scot also would like to focus on "how can new technologies -- such as the Woodson Institute's innovative digital history archives -- make new scholarship meaningful and widely accessible?" and "How can a new interpretive model, linking local knowledge to national discourses, transform teaching and research?"
The Ford Foundation previously funded a project entitled "The Chesapeake Regional Scholars Summer Seminars in African-American and African Studies" that led to increased exchanges of ideas between academic and independent lay scholars in the region. It also increased sharing of African-American studies resources among large and small colleges and Universities, Butler said.
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