Therí Pickens has been named the Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana studies at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. A faculty member since 2011, she has conducted extensive research on Arab American studies, Black studies, comparative literature, and disability studies. She has authored several publications, including Black Madness :: Mad Blackness (Duke University Press, 2019). Her debut poetry collection, What Had Happened Was (Duke University Press), is set for publication in March 2025.
Dr. Pickens received her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Shola Lynch has been named the Diana King Endowed Professor in Film, Filmmaking, Television, and Related Media and director of the documentary film program at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She comes to her new role from the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where she has served as curator of the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division for over a decade.
Professor Lynch holds a master’s degree in American history and public history management from the University of California, Riverside and a second master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
