Dear Editor:
Reading the editorial, "Major message stuck on repeat," gives me an opportunity to challenge a perception that has roots that are far too deep in our collective responses to the Black American Studies program. When I interviewed for the position of director of BAS, I was dismayed to learn that there was no strategic plan for the program, and that the popular perception of the BAS faculty was that they were either glorified social workers or angry ideologues pushing a political agenda in the classrooms that was more harmful than beneficial to students.
My efforts to counteract those perceptions have mostly been successful. However, there are many, far too many, members of the SIUC community who still seem to see the work of the faculty in the BAS program to be weighted in favor of the social and not the academic. Since I arrived here in 1997, I have published the equivalent of two books (one of the projects being a five-booklet series on adult spirituality). My most recent book was sent to the publisher in December 2005. I have coordinated national conferences, and been a keynote speaker at dozens of national and regional conferences. I have written articles and am presently undertaking a major role in a production for the Department of Theater (which is considered "creative activity" in our accounts of research productivity). Something may be at peril in all of that, but it is not my "writing and research."
Dr. Pamela Smoot has had to deal with three major illnesses in the last six years, any one of which would have seriously and negatively impacted anyone's research agenda. The fact is, she is working diligently on her research projects.
In the BAS program we are scholars, teachers and generous members of this community. Please remember that.
Joseph A. Brown, SJ; Ph. D.
professor and director, BAS
