Northwestern’s African Studies Program Loses Research Status

Beginning in September, Northwestern University’s 78-year-old Program of African Studies will no longer be considered a research center, a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed. Faculty will continue to conduct research and teach classes, but will do so under the Office of the Provost rather than the Office of Research, according to Will Reno, chair of the political science department and the incoming interim director of the Program of African Studies. 

The change was made “to re-energize a valuable program and to ensure its success going forward,” university spokesperson Jon Yates said in an email. 

The announcement comes after nearly two weeks of uncertainty in the Northwestern community and beyond, following the termination of the program’s only two staff members. One staffer, Meagan Keefe, said she was called into a meeting and told her position was being eliminated because the program would no longer be a research center.  

Beyond the change in designation, the courses and research will continue and the program’s endowment will remain intact, according to Yates’s email. He said the work of the two eliminated staff positions will be absorbed by existing staffers in the provost’s office. 

The program began in 1948 and is regarded as the first of its kind in the nation. Today it funds research and offers interdisciplinary degrees in African studies to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students, according to its website.