Africana Studies is the newest department at the University of New Mexico. It was a program at UNM for 51 years and was able to grant Bachelor's degrees, but in 2022 it became a department and can now grant Master’s degrees as well.
That’s also when Kirsten Pai Buick became chair of the department. She spoke with KUNM about her goals and achievements within the department since then.
KRISTEN PAI BUICK: So 10 years ago, I was Associate Director of the Africana Studies program under Professor Finnie Coleman. And we have always sought to fill our ranks with faculty who teach through the lens of the African diaspora. Whether it is law or medicine, or public health, or art, it is a multi discipline faculty and by its nature multi-discipline degree. And in terms of the benefit for undergraduates, it helps prepare them for the future, whether they decide to go into engineering, or medicine or law, or whether they choose to remain in the humanities. Africana Studies provides a really important foundation.
KUNM: How have things changed in the department since your appointment?
BUICK: I decided to grow smart rather than fast. And that meant transferring lines into Africana studies. So we have a core faculty who is already familiar to students, they've just switched departments or moved parts of their line into Africana studies.
KUNM: Why do you think that is important?
BUICK: Because these are people who want to be in New Mexico. They are committed to UNM, and in particular, the students here. It's why I've been here for 23 years and the reason I stayed was because of the students. So in building a department based on faculty are here, we get a core group that knows UNM and then that can advise me on future hires.
KUNM: Why is it important for the University of New Mexico to have the Department of Africana Studies?
BUICK: It is a way to diversify the curriculum. Having Africana Studies as a degree granting institution creates allyships with other ethnic studies, departments. It creates lines of conversation and openness. It honors the history of Black people, not only in New Mexico, but nationally, and internationally.
KUNM: How has the department impacted the community over time on and off campus?
BUICK: We have a lot of community responsibilities. And this is what makes the ethnic studies departments unique, on this campus, in particular, Native American studies, they have to have spaces where they can invite the elders and share food. The same with Chicana and Chicano studies, and Africana studies as well. We have a commitment to the local community. On the last Saturday of every January, we host our Black History Month kickoff brunch, we get upwards we have more than 300 people in attendance. And more and more high school students are are being brought to the brunch.
KUNM: Why teach in New Mexico?
BUICK: I like New Mexico because of the way it imagines itself as American, very differently from either coast. Here's an example, I wrote my dissertation on a 19th-century sculptor who was Ojibwe, and Black. And at an East Coast institution and a West Coast institution when I was interviewing for jobs, each search committee asked if I was sure I could teach American art, since I've written my dissertation on a Black woman. And it's because they don't think African American art is American. But I didn't have that question when I interviewed here. I like being in a place where I'm reminded that we are all on stolen land and so the presence of First Nations people has over the decades become very important to me, we have an obligation to those communities. I love that it's a Hispanic-serving institution. And so I guess the brownness of New Mexico, is what thrills me. And just it's, like I said, its differentness, it doesn't imagine itself as American in the same way that the rest of the country does. I was born and raised in Chicago. And I could not imagine ever going back.
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