Constructing Collective Paradigms and Practices

Beginning in 1999, the Ford Foundation funded in a two-year national multidisciplinary research seminar, "The Meanings and Representations of Work in the Lives of Women of Color." This project is based in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Maryland and is part of the Collaborative Transformation Project, along with the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity (CRGE) and the Curriculum Transformation Project. Building upon the work of the highly regarded "Meanings and Representations of Work in the Lives of Black Women" project, the "Work in the Lives of Women of Color" research seminar is directed by Sharon Harley and coordinated by Francille Rusan Wilson. In order to draw upon the intellectual work, collaborative spirit, unique research and collaborative opportunities, tremendous excitement and demand for increased involvement demonstrated by these aforementioned projects, the Afro-American Studies Program is establishing a " Center for African-American Women's Labor Studies."

The formation of this center is critical in the following areas:

• Research and publishing through expanded research seminars on work in the lives of group of women such as beauticians, factory workers, scholars and other blue/white/pink collar labors;
• Documenting the historical and contemporary lives of frequently overlooked groups of working women; and advancing the study of gender in communities of color.

In the following three years, this center will seek to build more communities of understanding and train in a new generation of scholars through the below three overlapping but separate projects:

• An expanded Women of Color research seminar that will include a new generation of scholars - advanced graduate students and junior faculty whose research focuses on work in the lives of women of color. Under the auspices of the Center, the seminar will also complete its original mission through the collaborative work-shopping of participants' research papers, and the publication of those papers. (2002-2004)
• An Oral History Project focusing on Black women's work in five major occupational field: agriculture, beauty salons, factories, construction, and academia. (2002-2004)
• A new multi-disciplinary research symposium comprised of a cross-section of scholars will assist in developing an interdisciplinary paradigm for examining the intersection of gender, race, and work in black and other communities of color. A main goal of the invitational symposium will be to ground scholarship in race in a deeper understanding and appreciation of the centrality of gender to such studies. (2003-2004)