For the second year in a row, Colorado State has been selected to participate in the Academy for Leaders in the Humanities, a program funded by the Mellon Foundation and hosted by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Dr. Ray Black, an associate professor of Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies, will represent CSU in the Humanities Academy as our WICHE Fellow for 2024-2026. He joins his College of Liberal Arts colleague Tom Dunn, an associate professor of Communication Studies, who was named our 2023-2025 WICHE Fellow last spring.
Based in Colorado, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education has been strengthening higher education, workforce development, and behavioral health throughout the West since 1953. The WICHE region, comprised of 15 Western states and the U.S. Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States, improves lives across the West through innovation, cooperation, resource sharing, and sound public policy.
The Humanities Academy was created to help WICHE-region institutions “diversify their academic administration by preparing their humanities faculty to effectively and confidently take on and succeed in leadership roles.” The program funds two-year, half-time fellowships for tenured humanities faculty who are also “aspiring academic leaders.” As WICHE Fellows, they work with senior mentors at both WICHE and their home institution on initiatives that demand humanities expertise.
An African American Studies scholar, Black specializes in history, literature, media and protest with a specific interest in how students of color succeed from early childhood through graduate school. He has also taught at all levels, including in both a Head Start program and a program to keep young men of color in high school. At CSU, Black works closely with the Black African American Cultural Center and is a sought-after mentor. A playwright and director, he also recently guest-directed the mainstage production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Fairview for the School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
“This is an exciting opportunity for Dr. Black,” said Dr. Sushmita Chatterjee, Chair of Race Gender and Ethnic Studies. “I can’t wait to see his manifold contributions to higher education and specifically his contributions to the urgency in higher education for meaningful diversity. Dr. Black has invaluable expertise and empathy as a teacher and mentor for our students, and he is excellently positioned to structure deep changes for equitable futures.”
As an WICHE Fellow, Black will work with Greg Dickinson, the William E. Morgan Endowed Chair in CLA and director of the Joe Blake Center for Engaged Humanities. The Blake Center, which was founded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and matching funds from the university, will be a hub for engaged interdisciplinary research, teaching and service across CSU and in the community. Black will design humanities-based academic programing for historically underrepresented students and lay a foundation for the Blake Center to serve as a humanities-based home for faculty of color.
“Ray’s project weaving scholarship, pedagogy, and service to enrich the experiences of underserved students is an ideal expansion of the Blake Center for Engaged Humanities,” Dickinson said. “Ray will bring humanities-influenced leadership experience to the policy and practice of social justice on campus.”
Black is looking forward to his fellowship, which will kick off in September by convening Humanities professors across the WICHE region in conversation around leadership development and program management. “I’m excited for the opportunity to engage more deeply in applying research and faculty experience in examining and creating administrative policies and programs that will best serve African American students and all underrepresented and underserved students at CSU and other WICHE-region institutions,” Black said.
The Humanities Academy selects participating institutions and their fellows in a competitive application process open to all institutions of higher ed in the WICHE region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and the U.S. Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States.) Only eight institutions and the faculty fellows they nominate are invited to participate each year. Learn more at WICHE’s website.
