Creating Community
Life and Learning at Alabama State University
University of Alabama Press
Creating Community explores how faculty members at Alabama State University, a historically black university in Montgomery, have been inspired by the legacy of African American culture and the civil rights movement and how they seek to interpret and extend that legacy through teaching, scholarship, and service. Authors describe a wide range of experiences from the era of segregation to the present day. These include accounts of growing up and going to college in Alabama, arriving in the South for the first time to teach at ASU, and the development of programs such as the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture. Together, the essays present viewpoints that reflect the diverse ethnic, cultural, and academic backgrounds of the contributors and of the university.
'These voices speak about what it means to be a Black college, what it means to be an Alabaman by birth or migration, about southernness from insider and outsider perspectives, and about faculty roles and responsibilities in the changing landscape of higher education.' —M. Christopher Brown II, author of The Quest to Define Collegiate Desegregation
Karl E. Westhauser is Associate Professor of History, Elaine M. Smith is retired Assistant Professor of History, and Jennifer A. Fremlin is Associate Professor of English and Humanities, all at Alabama State University.