New institute to continue DuBois' work

Nearly 100 years after W.E.B. DuBois studied urban life in The Philadelphia Negro, several University researchers will continue his influential investigation into the life of city-dwelling minorities. The W.E.B. DuBois Collective Research Institute, established in May, deals with many of the urban issues analyzed by DuBois that still plague many African-American communities today. Education Professor Margaret Beale Spencer of the Graduate School of Education, who spearheaded the project, will serve as its director. The institute is funded through the Office of the University President and the National Institute of Mental Health. The University is kicking in $1 million over five years, while the NIMH will contribute $3 million over the same time frame. The DuBois Institute encompasses eight different schools at the University, including the Wharton School, The School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Social Work and the Medical School. Spencer said that bringing in diverse topics -- such as business, health and the humanities -- is the only way to efficiently study the broad themes of urban life on which DuBois wrote. "We have created a research community for scholars interested in the basic themes and concerns raised by W.E.B. DuBois," said Spencer, a developmental psychologist and the Penn Board of Overseers Professor of Education. "It is fascinating that we ask questions redundant of those DuBois raised 100 years ago. DuBois -- who taught at Penn in the early 1900s -- is considered one of the most influential men of the time because of his research into the historical and sociological conditions faced by African Americans. He fought hard for economic and educational equality and is one of the founding officers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "When I first arrived, different people were interested in all different aspects of his history.", Spencer said, "I realized we would learn much more about W.E.B. DuBois if we collaborated." The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899, is a study of the social and economic conditions of African Americans in Philadelphia. The work is the first sociological text on an African American community published in the United States. The projects in the institute will range from completely new studies to extensions of old investigations taken in a collaborative light. The Kellogg Foundation has already funded a $2 million study into how youths are supported in their schools and communities that will involve faculty from the School of Social Work, the Medical School and GSE. "The collaboration is unusual in that it proposes to research and not just serve as a forum for discussion," said Spencer. "That's unique among disciplinary lines." The newly formed institute may also help mend the somewhat strained relationship between the University and the surrounding community through research and youth programs. "Our research will cross many different disciplinary lines and create a real collaboration with West Philadelphia," Spencer added. Spencer is currently involved in a school-to-work program that gives students from nearby Philadelphia public schools jobs at the University. If the institute proves to be successful, it could be seen as a model for other urban areas across the country where similar problems, such as prejudice and underemployment in African American communities, exist. The DuBois Center at Harvard also focuses on the African American visionary but, according to Spencer, the similarities end there. "Not only are we focusing on the themes, but we are coming together with basic research that can be applied into our community," she said. Representatives from the National Science Foundation, the Institutes for Social Research at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley and The Job Bank advise the DuBois Institute on a national level.