The Ford Foundation has awarded Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research a $336,000 grant, the University announced this week.

The grant will increase departmental funds by $100,000 over a period of three years and will support scholarly research in Afro-American Studies, according to a statement by Nathan I. Huggins, director of the institute.

The DuBois Institute, a post-doctoral center for research in Afro-American Studies, hosts 12 to 15 scholars each year.

This year's visiting scholars are also sponsored by a ford Foundation grant.

"These funds will enable us to bring some of the most distinguished scholars in the field from throughout the world to undertake research at Harvard," Huggins said in the statement.

Huggins could not be reached for additional comment yesterday.

The grant will also fund intercollegiate working groups of scholars. These groups will focus primarily on prominent issues within the field of Afro-American Studies.

Scholars participating in the working groups include Harvard Divinity School Professor of Theology Preston N. Williams, Amherst College Professor David W. Willis, and University of Paris Professor Genevieve Fabre and Queens College Professor Melvin Dixon.

Fabre and Dixon's group will identify and analyze symbolic dates, places, persons, commemorations, and famous or forgotten events in Afro-American history.