Guest Editors: Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania
Michael E. Jennings, University of Texas at San Antonio

Call for Articles:

Currently 300,000 students attend the nation’s 105 historically Black colleges (40 public four year, 11 public two-year, 49 private four year, and 5 private 2 year). This amounts to 24% of all African American college students (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2004). However, much of the research on Black colleges is limited and often dated. For example, a good deal of the historical research stops in the 1930s, missing the impact of the post-war period, the Cold War, and much of the Civil Rights Movement (Anderson, 1988; Anderson and Moss, 1999; Watkins, 2001) on these institutions. Although there has been significant sociological research it is most often focused on the impact of Black colleges on student experiences, thus ignoring a cadre of other issues, such as governance, academic freedom, faculty, fund raising, etc. (e.g., Allen, 1992; Allen, 1991; Bohr et al, 1995; Conrad et al, 1997; Constantine, 1994; Constantine, 1995; Fleming, 1984; Freeman, 1999; Garibaldi, 1991; Kim, 2002; Ross, 1998; Ross, 2003). On occasion, scholars have authored philosophical research on Black colleges (e.g., Allen & Jewel, 2002; McKenzie, 1993; Price, 1998). However, at a time when Black access to historically White institutions is once again in decline, we need additional research to treat more comprehensively the basic assumptions and questions behind the African American institutions that might fill the gap. Lastly, although the “nurturing” effect on students has often been cited as a defense of Black colleges, little to no anthropological research has been done to understand this effect.
With these gaps in mind, guest editors Marybeth Gasman and Michael Jennings invite disciplinary and interdisciplinary submissions that seek to enhance scholarship pertaining to Black colleges. We are especially interested in articles from the disciplinary perspectives of history, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. In particular, we are interested in articles that explore institutional leadership and African-American agency, issues of curriculum, pre-civil rights activity, institutional and student responses to the Black Power and Black Consciousness movements, town-gown relationships under Jim Crow, government policy towards these institutions (local, state, and federal), issues of gender, faculty workloads, and the role of academic freedom and governance. Authors should feel free to suggest additional topics as well.

Please contact the guest editors of this special edition of Educational Foundations for more information or to suggest additional ideas for articles:

Marybeth Gasman, mgasman@gse.upenn.edu, 215-573-3990
Michael Jennings, Michael.Jennings@utsa.edu, 210-458-5415

Submissions to Educational Foundations undergo a blind peer review by members of the Editorial Board and other reviewers recruited by the Guest Editors. Submissions should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001 (with a suggested length of 25-30 double-spaced pages) and include an abstract of no more than 120 words. Please send all submissions via email to Marybeth Gasman at mgasman@gse.upenn.edu:

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS: April 15, 2006
FINAL DECISIONS SHOULD BE MADE BY July 1, 2006

Effective 2005, Darrell Cleveland of New Jersey City University will be the new general editor. If you would like to submit a paper on another topic to the journal, please contact Darrell Cleveland at:

Darrell Cleveland, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
320 Professional Studies Building
New Jersey City University
2039 Kennedy Blvd
Jersey City, NJ 07305
O) (201) 200-2000, ext. 4181
F) (201) 200-3567
dcleveland@njcu.edu