"Committed to Institution Building": James Turner and the History of Africana Studies at Cornell University, an Interview

James Turner has been at the center of the modern Black Studies Movement since its emergence in the 1960s, as an extension of the Black Power Movement. Since his days as a student activist at Northwestern University he has remained a consistent voice in the struggle to expand the discipline and re-write scholarship on the people of Africa and the African Diaspora. This detailed oral history interview chronicles the life of the initiator of the term "Africana Studies" and the founding director of Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center. Aside from addressing contemporary debates and interrogating his own writings in this area, the interview also draws parallels between Turner's unique career as a scholar-activist and the experiences of others working in African-American, African Diaspora and Africana Studies.