Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, who founded the program and chaired the department until 2021, said faculty were never consulted about the decision.
“Nobody. Not a word,” said Asante. “You would think that they would have the courtesy to at least say, ‘Look, this is what we're going to do.’”
A notice on the department's graduate webpage says the program “is not accepting applications for the 2027 - 2028 academic year.” The notice offers no explanation.
Asante, the author of more than 100 books and one of the most widely published scholars in Black studies, learned of the decision from a doctoral student who spotted the notice online. He wrote to Temple President John Fry and told him the university was “shooting itself in the foot.”
“This is your most iconic program at Temple,” Asante said. “We can't compete with other universities in history or psychology or political science. But we created the first Ph.D. program in African American studies.”
According to Asante, Fry wrote back that he would look into it. He later told Asante that the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the department chair had met and discussed the decision.
“They're saying it’s financial, but to me, it seems like it's more the influence of the MAGA people,” Asante added.
Roughly 14 scholars, including Dr. Ibram X. Kendi—the prominent Black studies professor—have signed a letter to the university protesting the move. The effort was organized by a San Diego State University faculty member who earned his doctorate at Temple.
Asante said Black state legislators in Pennsylvania have been briefed and community groups in Philadelphia have been notified. Some activists are ready to demonstrate on campus, he said.
"We're going to nationalize this," Asante said.
Temple launched the program in 1988 as the first doctoral program in African American Studies in the country. The University of Massachusetts Amherst started the second one ten years later. Asante said Temple has graduated more than 240 Ph.D.s, and many of them now run or teach in Black studies departments at Howard University, Indiana University, the University of Colorado, the University of Pittsburgh, San Diego State and elsewhere.
Some within the university say the decision is one piece of a larger round of cuts.
In a September 18 letter to the department's faculty, staff and graduate students, chair Dr. Ama Mazama wrote that the dean had announced a one-year suspension of new admissions for all doctoral programs in the College of Liberal Arts.
“At this point, there is no reason to interpret this College-wide suspension of doctoral admissions as indicating that the existence of DAAAS or its doctoral program is in jeopardy,” Mazama wrote, using the department's acronym.
But across the university, other programs have continued to admit doctoral students, creating confusion among students and faculty. Temple’s online graduate bulletin still lists the college's psychology Ph.D. with a Nov. 15 application deadline and no mention of a pause. Outside the college, the College of Education is accepting doctoral applications in two concentrations and has closed the rest until further notice.
University officials did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
“Right now, it all seems arbitrary,” said one African American studies faculty member, who said that “the university has not operated with transparency.”
Mazama said the dean presented the pause as a chance for departments to review their doctoral programs, make them more competitive and help students finish sooner. The college wants students to be able to complete the Ph.D. in about five years, she wrote. Temple’s program now allows up to seven.
She also noted that the department finished an extensive self-study a few months ago as part of an external review, and that the reviewers found no fundamental problems with its graduate programs. She plans to meet with college administrators soon and urged colleagues not to draw
Temple's decision comes amid mounting pressure on Black studies graduate programs nationally. The University of Louisville paused doctoral admissions and eliminated all graduate teaching assistantships in its Pan-African Studies Department. Northwestern University's 78-year-old Program of African Studies will no longer be considered a research center and is now housed under the Office of the Provost rather than the Office of Research.
"They're attacking the programs everywhere," Asante said. "And I think the universities have not been strong."
Students already enrolled in the doctoral program are not affected. Asante is supervising three doctoral candidates who are writing their dissertations. He said one master's student from Los Angeles came to Temple planning to move straight into the Ph.D. program and is now second-guessing that choice.
“They don't know what to do,” Asante said. “We have no direction.”
Asante called the decision painful to watch.
“It's ridiculous,” he said. “It's a shame.”
