Anonymous Gift of $400,000 Supports Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

An anonymous gift of $400,000 will support the College’s recently established Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity for the next three years. "The generous assistance of this gift will aid the center as it helps create a stronger campus community while at the same time preparing our students for citizenship in the world at large," said President Peggy R. Williams as she announced the gift. The Ithaca College Board of Trustees has demonstrated its support as well — Williams also announced that the board has set aside an endowment fund of $1 million to help sustain the center’s operation.

The center is a multidisciplinary home for studying the experiences of groups that traditionally have been marginalized, underrepresented, or misrepresented in the United States as well as in college curricula. Over three years the grant will contribute to workshops and seminars for faculty and students, arts events on ethnic traditions, and the creation of new courses on African American, U.S. Latino/ Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American heritages as well as ethnicity worldwide.

"The new courses to be developed will help fill a serious gap in our curriculum," says James Malek, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "The center will lead the way in shaping how these topics are best studied, bringing together many disciplines and comparative perspectives. I am very proud of the work our planning group, led by associate provost Tanya Saunders and professor of politics Asma Barlas, has done in developing a model that serves many constituencies and responds to a wide variety of interests."

Barlas (in photo), chair of the Department of Politics, was a driving force in the creation of the center and is serving as its interim director. Last year, as its first project, the center sponsored the Discussion Series on Islam and cosponsored two film screenings in the Cinema on the Edge series curated by Park School professors Patricia R. Zimmermann and Gina Marchetti. This year the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity and the School of Music will cohost a series of concerts and lectures on music with African roots. "Reverberations: Music of the African Diaspora" opens Wednesday, September 6, with a workshop, lecture, and recital by Latin percussionist Bobby Sanabria. On September 8 ethnomusicologist Kazadi wa Mukuna will speak on "Dimensions of African Music in the New World," and Women of the Calabash will perform the following evening. Gospel music will be explored later in the fall, with a lecture by Horace Clarence Boyer and a community gospel concert. The series will wind up on April 7, 2001, with a concert by trombone wizard Jimmy Bosch and his Afro-Cuban Latin jazz band. This year’s Cinema on the Edge series will also present films relating to the theme.

Photo by Bill Truslow