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March 2008 | Home
U-M Heritage
Fraternity war
In the early days of the university, fraternities met in secret. Their exposure ignited a conflict that transformed U-M into the institution it is today.
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Faculty at Work
Building clean energy from the atom up
Professor Levi Thompson is solving one of the most socially important questions in engineering.
Talking about words
Dank
A lesson in the latest slang, courtesy of Mrs. Thompson's middle school students.
Talking about movies
Courtroom dramas
Who can forget Bogart as Capt. Queeg, or Nicholson bellowing "You can't handle the truth!"? This genre includes some of film's most indelible performances.
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African Studies Center established
February 14, 2008
The University of Michigan is establishing an African Studies Center (ASC) to support and promote the work of more than 120 faculty members engaged in scholarship related to Africa.
The African Studies Center, to launch in July, will enrich and provide additional support for teaching and research by organizing lectures, workshops, conferences and outreach events and by serving as the focal point for U-M faculty and students engaged in African studies on campus and in Africa. One of 17 centers for area and international studies at U-M under the umbrella of the University’s International Institute, the ASC will serve as a resource for research of all kinds and a platform for cross-cultural exchange.
The new center will take advantage of its affiliation with U-M’s 38-year-old Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (CAAS), which focuses on the study of people of African descent. CAAS, considered one of the foremost centers for Afroamerican and African Studies in the world, will continue to build on its long history of academic engagement with Africa.
"Working with CAAS and Africanists across the campus, we have laid the foundation for what promises to be one the country’s strongest and most innovative programs dealing with Africa," said International Institute Director Mark Tessler. "Scores of U-M faculty members are teaching and doing research related to Africa, and the university also has numerous collaborative projects with African universities.The initiatives being launched in conjunction with President Coleman’s trip to Ghana and South Africa will provide yet additional opportunities for engagement with the continent, and all of this will make Michigan a national leader in the field of African Studies."
Kelly Askew, associate professor of Afroamerican and African Studies and anthropology, will serve as interim director of the new center. Many other CAAS faculty are also expected to be work with ASC, as will researchers in a host of disciplines from medicine to anthropology to education to music to economics.
The center is making plans to cooperate with the well-respected National Resource Center in African Studies at Michigan State University.