University of Chicago Library

Guide to the University of Chicago African Studies Workshop Records 1985-1995

Descriptive Summary

Title:	University of Chicago. African Studies Workshop. Records
Dates:	1985-1995
Size:	4 linear feet (8 boxes)
Repository:	Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.
Abstract:	The University of Chicago African Studies Workshop is an interdisciplinary forum conducted and operated under the auspices of the University Council for Advanced Studies. The collection of African Studies Workshop Records contains administrative data such as period evaluations by the Council for Advanced Studies, participant lists, requests for refunding, meeting agendas, invitations to present and related correspondence, as well as a collection of the papers presented to the workshop’s various venues between the years 1985 and 1995. The bulk of materials date from the years 1990-1993. The included papers document the past student and faculty participation in the African Studies Workshop, the administrative workings of the workshop and the often otherwise unavailable papers presented in this unique and influential forum.

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago. African Studies Workshop. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Historical Note

The University of Chicago African Studies Workshop is an interdisciplinary forum conducted and operated under the auspices of the University Council for Advanced Studies. The workshops involved in the Council for Advanced Studies (CAS) emerged in 1982 following recommendations from a research inquiry called the University of Chicago Commission on Graduate Education, also known as the Baker Report. The mandate was to provide advanced graduate students with the opportunity to discuss and present their dissertation research to a diverse community of scholars. Since its inception the workshop system has been gradually expanded to encompass not only advanced graduate students, but less advanced graduate students’ MA papers and dissertation proposals, as well as visiting scholars’ and faculty works in progress.

The African Studies Workshop forum is specifically organized for graduate students and faculty whose research involves social, historical, political and economic lives of people of the African Continent as well as its historical and contemporary diasporas. The majority of participants in the African Studies Workshop come from the Department of Anthropology, but the workshop student coordinators and faculty sponsors have also actively encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration and conversation by including participants and members from the disciplines of history, human development, literature, political science and religious studies. Additionally, the African Studies Workshop has been a platform for cross-institutional collaboration and cooperation through participation in special sessions at the Red Lion Pub on the north side of Chicago. These special sessions are co-coordinated with Northwestern University’s Program on African Studies and have historically involved participants from both the Committee for African and African American Studies at the University of Chicago and the aforementioned Northwestern University Program.

The workshop has historically been organized by graduate student coordinators working under the oversight of one or two faculty sponsors. These coordinators bear the responsibility (in consultation with the faculty sponsors) of planning the yearly workshop presentation schedule, inviting and corresponding with visiting guest speakers, and maintaining the yearly CAS budget allocated for workshop activities, refreshments, transportation and honoraria for visiting guests. Each year the workshop undergoes a review and evaluation process by CAS and must present the previous year’s activities, graduate student and faculty participation and continued interest in the existence of the workshop.

Scope Note

The African Studies Workshop Records are organized into two Series: Series I: Administration and Series II: Events. The collection contains annual administrative data required for the re-evaluation and continued funding of the workshop between the years 1985 and 1995: Council for Advanced Studies Evaluations and requests for Funding, participant lists, invitations and correspondence with guest presenters, quarterly workshop schedules, and bureaucratic documents such as reimbursement requests and worksheets for travel expenses. The bulk of the collection consists of a chronologically organized collection of the papers submitted and discussed at the workshop between the years of 1985 and 1995 at its venues, the African Studies Workshop and the Red Lion Seminars co-coordinated with Northwestern University’s Program in African Studies.

Related Resources

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

Browse finding aids by topic.

University of Chicago. Committee on African Studies. Records

Ralph Austen. Papers

University of Chicago, Commission on Graduate Education (Baker Commission). Records

Subject Headings

Austen, Ralph A.
University of Chicago. Committee on African Studies
Africa -- Study and Teaching

INVENTORY

Series I: Administration

Series I, Administration, contains chronologically-ordered administrative data required for the ongoing operation of the workshop: Council for Advanced Studies annual evaluations; workshop directories and participant lists; draft and final workshop presentation schedules; invitations to present and related correspondence; funding and reimbursement requests and other miscellaneous forms.

Box 1 Folder 1

ASW Mailing Lists and Forms, undated

Box 1 Folder 2

Addresses, undated

Box 1 Folder 3

Notes on African Studies Workshop, undated

Box 1 Folder 4

Worksheet for Travel Expenses, Blank, undated

Box 1 Folder 5

African Studies Workshop Schedule, Autumn 1985

Box 1 Folder 6

ASW Evaluations, Participant Lists, Correspondence, 1985-1987

Box 1 Folder 7

ASW Schedule 1987

Box 1 Folder 8

ASW Schedules 1988

Box 1 Folder 9

Labels and Previous Mailing Lists 1988

Box 1 Folder 10

ASW Attendance, 1988-1989

Box 1 Folder 11

ASW Correspondence 1988

Box 1 Folder 12

ASW Schedules/Participation 1989

Box 1 Folder 13

ASW Correspondence Received, 1989-1990

Box 1 Folder 14

ASW Schedule/Participation 1990

Box 1 Folder 15

Conference on Ritual, Power and History, 1990

Box 1 Folder 16

ASW Invitations, Fall 1990

Box 1 Folder 17

African Studies Directory, 1990

Box 1 Folder 18

Misc. Forms 1990s

Box 1 Folder 19

African Studies Workshop, Meeting Agendas, Winter/Spring 1991

Box 1 Folder 20

Participants List, 1991-1992

Box 1 Folder 21

Schedule, African Studies Workshop, 1991-1992

Box 1 Folder 22

Reimbursement Requests, 1991-1992

Box 1 Folder 23

Finance, Winter 1992

Box 1 Folder 24

ASW Funding Requests, 1992

Box 1 Folder 25

Schedules, ASW, 1992-1993

Box 1 Folder 26

Ralph Austen, Correspondence, 1992-1993

Box 1 Folder 27

African Studies Workshop-Participant Lists- 1992-1993

Box 1 Folder 28

Correspondence 1993-1994

Box 2 Folder 1

ASW Participant List, 1993-1994

Box 2 Folder 2

Budgetary Procedures, Purchase Forms, 1993-1994

Box 2 Folder 3

ASW Schedule, 1994-1995

Box 2 Folder 4

Reimbursement Requests/Correspondence 1994

Box 2 Folder 5

Information on U of C Workshops, 1995

Series II: Events

Series II, Events, contains a chronologically-ordered collection of the papers presented at the African Studies Workshop between the years of 1985 and 1995. These include papers presented at the African Studies Workshop and at the "Red Lion Seminars" co-coordinated and co-hosted with Northwestern University’s Program in African Studies. This collection also includes papers presented at an African Studies Workshop "Conference on Ritual, Power and History" in 1990. Some copies of workshop papers contain marginalia and critical commentary resulting from the workshop presentation and other folders contain workshop announcement posters.

Box 2 Folder 6

ASW Papers, 1985

Box 2 Folder 7

ASW Papers, 1986

Box 2 Folder 8

ASW Papers, 1986

Box 2 Folder 9

ASW Papers, 1987

Box 2 Folder 10

ASW Paper Submissions, 1987-1988

Box 3 Folder 1

ASW Paper Submissions, 1988

Box 3 Folder 2

ASW Paper Submissions, 1988

Box 3 Folder 3

ASW Paper Submissions, 1988

Box 3 Folder 4

ASW Papers, 1988

Box 3 Folder 5

ASW Papers, 1988

Box 3 Folder 6

ASW Papers, 1988

Box 3 Folder 7

ASW Papers/Schedule Fall 1989

Box 4 Folder 1

ASW Papers, 1989

Box 4 Folder 2