The CAUSE Mission
The Center seeks to accomplish its objectives by developing programs of graduate and postdoctoral training, scholarly research, data collection, publications, and education.
First and most important, CAUSE sponsors graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty research on topics defined within the Center's mission statement. Graduate fellows must meet the admissions requirements for graduate studies in history and/or another program deemed appropriate to the Center's mission. For their part, postdoctoral fellows will have received the Ph.D. in history or a historical-oriented area of the social sciences. By placing graduate and postdoctoral training at the top of our agenda, we aim to enhance the pool of young scholars qualified to teach and research the African American urban experience in institutions of higher education.
Second, the Center supports a program of scholarly publications that appeal to scholars and public policy experts, and broader public audiences as well. Articles and books produced by faculty, doctoral, and postdoctoral affiliates of the Center comprise the bulk of our publication efforts. We not only encourage collaborative research across disciplines, programs, and divisions of the university (particularly through affiliation with the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management), but also with colleagues at other institutions through such organizations as the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA).
Third, in addition to a regular series of individual speakers, the Center organizes scholarly conferences on specific areas of concern. Such conferences explicitly involve historians, scholars from other disciplines, and public policy experts, practitioners, and community organizers. While the intended audiences might vary from conference to conference, depending on a variety of practical considerations as well as the definition of specific aims, goals, and objectives, we pay close attention to ways of reaching a broader nonacademic audience. In each case, we envision our conferences and speakers series as steps along the way to publication for broader dissemination of scholarly research.
Finally, the Center is beginning to offer periodic workshops for graduate and undergraduate students; members of business, professional, labor, and philanthropic organizations; and public officials. Such workshops promise not only to add to the existing graduate and undergraduate curriculum, but broaden interest in the work of the Center well beyond the university.