Maroon News

Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: News

Professor Richards [Click to enlarge]

"I learned a lot about France during my year-long stay at L'Universiteé Stendhal, the arts and science college of the University of Grenoble," Associate Professor of English Phillip Richards said. "Stendahl was a very cosmopolitan university whose students came not only from France, but also from countries throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.
Teaching in France, Africa and throughout the United States, Richards has encountered university education from many perspectives. As a Professor of English in francophone (French-speaking) universities in Africa (L'Université Omar Bongo in Gabon) as well as in France, Richards saw the competitive atmosphere many students outside of the United States faced.
"At L'Université Stendhal, nearly 50 per cent of any year's cohort of prospective English students failed during their first two years," Richards said. "I saw much the same selectiveness in Africa. The francophone university system is tough and unforgiving. One has to teach in it to appreciate thoroughly the remarkable educational opportunity available to the American public. It is sobering to see the experience endured by the rest of the world, as it attempts to get a college education."
Richards grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended public schools until the 11th grade. At that time, he received a scholarship to a private school, where he finished his secondary education. Richards graduated from Yale University with a Bachelors of Arts in English and later earned his Masters of Arts and PhD in English from the University of Chicago.
After receiving his doctorate and joining the English Department at Colgate, Richards was a Fulbright fellow in Africa, a fellow at the National Humanities Center, a scholar at the Insititute on Race and Social Division at Boston University and a member of the American Studies program at L'Université Stendhal. He has been an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill for one year and served as a Visiting Associate Professor at Boston University. In France, he was a visiting full professor for the 2003 academic year.
Richards began his teaching career at Howard University, where he taught while working on his dissertation. There, he met an older generation of black scholars who had come to Howard during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. From them, he heard accounts of such famous thinkers as E. Franklin Frazier, Sterling Brown, Charles Just and Leo Hansberry.

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