Winston Van Horne, Professor of Africology, passed away on Friday, May 24, 2013, at 11:25 a.m. His son, Max, was holding his hand at the time, and they were listening to Harry Belafonte’s song, “Jamaica Farewell.”

Dr. Van Horne was born in Jamaica and came to UWM in 1978, where he served magnanimously until his death. Some of his contributions include navigating the Afro-American Studies Program to the Department of Africology; chairing the Department of Africology three times and being credited with creating the word Africology; serving as principal author of the Ph.D. program in Africology; serving on the faculty senate since 1980 (being absent for only required lapses); and directing the UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity for ten years. In recognition of his immense contribution and at the request of the Department of Africology, the UWM Faculty Senate unanimously voted in favor of naming a classroom on his behalf on December 13, 2012. On Friday, April 26, 2013, UWM officially re-named Mitchell Hall, Room 206, the Winston Van Horne Seminar Room.

In commemorating Dr. Van Horne, one of his Africology colleagues wrote the following: “Though he liked to work often in the shadow, Winston’s voice boomed and resonated far afield – his presence felt, if unseen. His vision carried beyond the confines of campus and town, reaching a global audience. He birthed a discipline, at once father and mother, but he would always say that Africology was simultaneously the newest discipline and the oldest. He had reasons for that argument, anchored in an understanding of African cosmological truths. Now that he has retreated to a well-deserved rest, he shall continue to work in the shadow, and his presence will continue to be felt, if unseen.”

View the Winston Van Horne obituary from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Degree:
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests:
Socrates and King in Jail: Justice and Law; conceptual foundations of Africology; Does America Dream in Color: Images and Symbols of Race in Modern America; The Classroom: In Fear of Our Colleagues; The Two Faces of Booker T. Washington: Ennobling Self-Help and Indiscriminate Flattery; race, ethnicity and nationalism in the 20th century; relationship between ethnicity and public policy; relation between death and political resistance.

Teaching Interests:
Politics and political philosophy in African-Americans and the Afroworld

Tradition in Black Political Thought

Selected Publications:
“Africology: Considerations Concerning a Discipline,” in Contemporary Africana Theory, Thought and Action Clenora Hudson-Weems, ed. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 2007), pp. 105-127.

“The Concept of Black Power: Its Continued Relevance,” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, January, 2007.

“Three Concepts of Legitimacy,” in Law, Culture & Africana Studies, James L. Conyers, Jr., ed. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008), pp. 47-55.

“Africology,” in Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, eds. (Thousand Oaks. London. New Deli: Sage Publications, 2005), pp. 59-61.

“Black Studies: Names Controversy,” in Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama, eds. (Thousand Oaks. London. New Deli: Sage Publications, 2005), pp. 158-160.

Winston A. Van Horne, ed., Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997).

“From Sinners to Saints: The Confessions of Saint Augustine and Malcolm X.” The Journal of Religious Thought, Vol. XLIII,No. 1, Spring-Summer, 1986.

“St. Augustine: Death and Political Resistance,” The Journal of Religious Thought, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, Fall-Winter,1981-82. Abstracted in Religious Index One: Periodicals, Fall, 1982.

“Prolegomenon to a Theory of Deception,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. XLII, No. 2, December, 1981. Abstracted in The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, June, 1982.

“Deception: Considerations on Strategies and Tactics,” The Afro World: Adventures in Ideas, O.R. Dathorne, ed., (special issue) Journal of Caribbean Studies, Vol. IV, Nos. 2 & 3, Winter, 1984.