The Institute for Research in African-American Studies of Columbia University , founded in July 1993 by Dr . Manning Marable , is an academic resource center . The purposes and activities of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies are grounded within the best scholarship of the black intellectual tradition . Towards that end , the Institute administers the Undergraduate and Master ' s degree programs in African-American Studies at Columbia University ; regularly sponsors academic conferences , lectures and forums on a wide variety of topics ; produced the scholarly publication SOULS : A Critical Journal of Black Politics , Culture and Society , which is distributed throughout the U . S . and internationally from 1995 to 2011 . The Winter 2016 Newsletter is published quarterly by the Institute for Research in African-American Studies . Senior Editor and Designer Zoraida Lopez

Cover image by Annette Bernhardt Front cover . Please follower her on twitter at https :// twitter . com / annette _ bern http :// iraas . columbia . edu

7 10 ! 11 !

Image by Gordon Parks