"Harvard had a very bad department for a very long time," he says. "What they're doing now is very good, in a public way as public intellectuals, rather than in a strictly academic way."

According to Robinson, Harvard may be key to producing researchers in Afro-American studies, but at the moment, he says, "The important scholars are still in a large part not at Harvard."

Moreover, Robinson argues that the public intellectual has a particular and important role to play in the dissemination of African-American studies.

"There will be some people whose principal role is the presentation of the research and not the research itself," he says. "People appreciate that they are in effect performing a very significant role in the black studies field."

"With maybe one or two exceptions, the strongest research and the most persistent research will be going on outside of Harvard," he adds. "Being a public intellectual takes up a great amount of time and energy."

A Shifty Paradigm

Some professors say that in its public acclaim, the Harvard department threatens to elevate one paradigm of inquiry into Afro-American studies above all others.

"The one concern that all of us have is that no single paradigm should dominate black studies," Robinson says. "It has happened with every discipline in the history of academia and Harvard is in great danger there."

Warren says that Harvard's program seems to be guided by a concern "to advise more or less directly those in a position to set government policy with regard to racial issues."

Several professors cite Wilson's work as an example of Harvard research liable to be taken dogmatically.

"The recent work that Wilson has done has been presented publicly as if it represents a kind of consensus on race and social policy," Warren says. "It represents one point of view. It doesn't represent anything like a consensus."

Robinson says Wilson may be popular at Harvard because he falls within the "political mainstream" and because of the strength of his research, even if his conclusions are debatable.

"Most of ny colleagues in black studies wouldn't find Wilson's interpretations that powerful, but his research is very important," Robinson says.

Harris, the Washington professor, says he recognizes the benefits Harvard's well-known Afro-American studies department may hold for other departments nationwide, notably in making the field more popular among students.

But still he is concerned that Harvard's department--because of the Harvard name and the resources at its disposal--may inevitably be a bit too greedy.

"My fear is that [the department] is like an NBA team with no salary cap, or if you have George Steinbrenner dollars in the New York City market, and you attract the stars and leave the crumbs for everyone else," he says. "That is a problem."