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The University of Delaware’s Department of Africana Studies is the new headquarters of the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS), and Assistant Professor Alicia Fontnette has been named the organization’s new executive director.
The move to UD allows NCBS the “opportunity to continue its important disciplinary and pedagogical commitments, while working with a first-rate department whose commitment to the study of African descended peoples is invigorating and engaging. We are fortunate to be relocated to a space where tremendous support exists for the next phases of NCBS’s work in the academy and the community,” said Valerie Grim, NCBS president.
Africana/Black studies departments began at universities as an intellectual extension of the 1960s era Civil Rights Movement, and NCBS was founded in 1975 to formalize the study of the African world experience, strengthen the academic discipline and promote social responsibility. “Africana studies at UD stands proudly with NCBS in its mission and to serve as its institutional home,” said Kimberly Blockett, chair of the Department of Africana Studies.
“Collaboration between NCBS and UD will highlight and elevate the academic distinction of both entities, creating an internationally recognized center for excellence in Africana studies,” Fontnette said.
Fontnette has served on the NCBS board since 2012. As a scholar-activist, she is dedicated to the freedom and liberation of Black and Brown people throughout the Diaspora. She believes that her responsibility is to help students encounter breakthroughs in thinking and acting in the interest of social justice.
