Derrick
Alridge, who was named one of the country’s 10
outstanding young African-American scholars by a
national publication in 2005, has been named new
director of the Institute for African American Studies
at the University
of Georgia.
Alridge,
who is an associate professor in the department of
lifelong education, administration and policy in the
College
of Education
at UGA, takes over from Kecia Thomas, a professor of
psychology who has served as interim director of the
institute and has recently accepted another position in
the Franklin
College.
The
Institute for African American Studies has evolved at
UGA as an academic program of study since 1969, though
its current status dates from 1992. It is dedicated to
the production of creative research on black people and
the black experience in the
Americas
and to innovative instruction for a diverse community of
thinkers. In addition, it serves as a cultural
repository and resource for the citizens of
Georgia.
“We’re
delighted that Derrick Alridge has accepted the
directorship of the institute,” said Garnett S. Stokes,
dean of the Franklin
College.
“Kecia Thomas provided outstanding leadership as interim
director, and we’re looking forward to continuing our
tradition of strong direction for this important part of
the college.”
Alridge
has ambitious goals for the institute. “I want the
institute to become the primary center in the South for
humanistic and social science research on the
African-American experience,” he said. “From there, we
hope to become one of the premier entities in the
country in the field of African-American studies.” He also plans to
significantly increase the visibility of the institute
at UGA, in Athens-Clarke
County
and in Georgia
as well.
Alridge’s
areas of scholarship include the history of
African-American education, African-American
intellectual history and the history of ideas, and civil
rights studies. In addition to being named one of the
top 10 rising African-American scholars in the
United
States
by Black Issues in Higher Education, he has
received many honors and has been well known on the UGA
campus, where he has served for 10 years.
A
native of Rock
Hill,
S.C.,
Alridge received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
history from Winthrop
University
. From 1989 to 1993, he taught middle and high school
history in the public schools of
Columbia,
S.C.
, and he returned to graduate school in 1993, earning a
doctoral degree in 1997 from
Penn
State
. While there, he was an instructor in African and
African-American studies.
In
1997, Alridge joined the faculty in the department of
social foundations of education at UGA and was appointed
associate professor in 2003. He teaches courses in
U.S.
history of education, civil rights and education, and a
course on the history of hip-hop. In 2005, Alridge
joined the faculty in the Qualitative Research Program
at UGA where he also teaches courses in historiography
and historical methods and on oral
history.
He
will hold faculty status in both the
Franklin
College
and the College
of Education
in his new position.
In
2000, Alridge and Maurice Daniels, dean of UGA’s
School
of Social
Work,
co-founded the Foot
Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies.
The FSP is an archival, oral history and film
documentary research project that attempts to uncover
and chronicle the stories of largely overlooked
participants of the American civil rights movement. To
date, Alridge and Daniels have produced three
documentaries that chronicle civil rights activities in
the state of Georgia.
The documentaries have aired several times on Georgia
Public Broadcasting.
Alridge
has received numerous awards and fellowships for his
research and teaching. Since 2000, he has been the
recipient of the following: National Endowment for the
Humanities Fellowship; National Academy of Education
Spencer/Postdoctoral Fellowship; Outstanding Writing
Award from the American Association of Colleges for
Teacher Education; Carter G. Woodson Distinguished
Lecturer (2003-present); Outstanding Teaching Award,
UGA; and the Carl D. Glickman Faculty Fellow Award, also
at UGA.
Alridge’s
work has been published in the Journal of Negro
Education, Journal of African-American
History (formerly Journal of Negro
History), History of Education Quarterly
(forthcoming in November), and Teachers College,
among others.
He
has completed one book, The Educational Thought of
W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History
(with Teachers College Press), which will be published
this year. Another book in progress is The Hip-Hop Mind: An
Intellectual History of the Social Consciousness of a
Generation (with the
University
of Wisconsin
Press).
In
addition to his publications, Alridge serves as
associate editor for the Journal of African-American
History.
