Black Studies Dispute at Rutgers University

Walton R. Johnson resigned as chair of the Africana studies department at Rutgers University in protest of the university’s plans to transfer some faculty members to another department. The scholars of African languages and literature would be moved to a new department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian languages.

The two scholars who would be moved to the new department have voiced support for the plan. But Professor Johnson believes the plan is a subtle attempt to begin the dismantling of black studies at Rutgers.

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