Prof gives symposium keynote

A professor from the City University of New York delivered the keynote address at a symposium last weekend on the role of black women in the academic community. Michele Wallace, an associate professor of English and women's studies, read a paper on the role of women in black literary criticism, according to Gail Ellison, program coordinator for the Afro-American Studies Program and organizer of the symposium. Panels of black female professors, university administrators and professionals from across the country addressed topics such as the status of black women students, faculty and administrators in institutions of higher education, according to John Roberts, director of the Afro-American Studies Program. The panelists also discussed their impact on the academic community and relationships within it, Roberts said. On Friday, a panel examined issues of race, gender and power in terms of how they affect the perception of black women by academic communities. They addressed the stereotyping of black women as matronly and nurturing, qualities Roberts called "antithetical to authority." Problems of authority especially plague black women who teach black studies, Roberts said, noting that "people think what [they] say is motivated by self-interest rather than academic concerns." Another topic addressed in the symposium was the unequal access of black women to employment and authority compared to that of black men. Although black women receive a higher number of degrees in higher education than black men, particularly at the Ph.D. level, it is much easier for black men to get hired and promoted, according to Roberts. A panel entitled "The African-American Woman: Researcher or Researched?" focused on the role of women in black history. Taunya Banks, a law professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, presented research on black women of the 17th and 18th centuries and their participation in the legal system as an example of the importance of studying women in order to clarify the history of American blacks. During the discussion on access and equity for black women working in the academic community, Princeton University Vice Provost Ruth Simmons said that out of almost 500,000 faculty employed at institutions of higher education in the United States, only 3.2 percent are non-hispanic blacks.