Status of Blacks in the Profession Committee - American Political Science Association (APSA)

Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession

The Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession develops and promotes activities concerning the professional development of African Americans within the discipline.

Committee Members:

Term expiring September 6, 2026

Claire Crawford, Wake Forest University
LaGina Gause, University of California, San Diego

Term expiring September 5, 2027

Jared Clemons, Temple University
Jasmine Smith, George Washington University
Justin Zimmerman, University at Albany, Chair

Term expiring September 5, 2028

Jonathan Collins, Brown University

Recent Committee Projects and Activities:

Survey of African American Portrayal in Introductory Textbooks in American Government/Politics: A Report of the APSA Standing Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession (.pdf)

Related Materials:

Mentoring and African-American Political Scientists, from the April 2005 issue of PS: Political Science & Politics

Related Programs and Activities:

Previous Panels or Roundtables at the APSA Annual Meeting:

2025 Roundtable: Don’t Rock the Boat?: The State of Academic Freedom for Black Political Scientists Navigating Higher Education’s Precarious Waters
2024 Roundtable: Evaluating and Addressing the Effects of Attacks on Higher Education and Academic Freedom on Blacks in the Profession
2023 Panel: Navigating the “Anti-woke” Storm: Practical Considerations for Graduate Students and Early Career Black Political Scientists
2023 Panel: Breaking News: Examining CRT & DEI Mis(Dis)Information: The Intellectual, Policy, and Political Implications in the Academy and Beyond
2022 Roundtable: Professional Development
2021 Roundtable: Black politics: Old problems, new directions and charting a path forward
2021 Panel: Getting it published: A panel discussion on writing and publishing books in REP
2020 Roundtable: New Insights on Black Politics: A Conversation with Book Authors on the “Back Bone” of the Democratic Party
2019 Panel: Race and Politics: New Theoretical and Methodological Insights vs. New Paradigms
2018 Author Meets Critic: New Books on Black Politics and Race
2017 Roundtable: The Black Agenda and the Trump Administration
2017 Author Meets Critics: Melanye Price’s The Race Whisperer: Barack Obama and the Political Uses of Race
2016 Panel: To Hell and Back: Black Political Scientists, Dispossession, Disability, and the Quotidian Violence of Academic Life
2015 Roundtable: From Hurricane Katrina to Ferguson: Environmental Justice, the State, & Violence
2014 Panel: (Non)Traditional Methods in the Study of Black Politics: Voices from the Field
2013 Panel: On the Passing of Friends and Intellectuals: A Panel in Honor of the Life and Work of Hanes Walton Jr., Richard Iton, and William E. ‘Nick’ Nelson
2011 Panel: The Status of Blacks in the Profession
2010 Panel: ‘New’ Black Politics Revisited: Deracialization and ‘Post-Racial’ Black Leadership
2009 Panel: Black Faculty Recruitment and Retention: The Impact of the Economic Crisis
2008 Panel: Status of Diversity Profiles in the Profession