Penn Creates Africana Studies Department
The new department will have 11 standing faculty members and will be chaired by Camille Z. Charles, a professor of sociology at Penn.
For Its Centennial, Rice University Will Celebrate African American Art
Rice University, which until 1965 did not admit Black students, is planning to show a major exhibit of African American art to celebrate its centennial.
New Florida Atlantic University Website Explores Contemporary Race Relations
The project is under the direction of Kitty Oliver, a veteran journalist who teaches in the department of communication and multimedia studies at FAU.
Emory University Expands Its African Origins Database
Emory has added the names of an additional 80,000 African captives who were victims of the illegal slave trade.
Anthony Pinn Is the Founding Director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative...
Dr. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies at Rice University in Houston.
Stanford Sees a Surge in African Studies Students
The number of students taking African studies courses at Stanford has increased 27 percent over the past eight years.
University of Minnesota Hosting a Conference on Global Racial Inequality
The fourth World Conference on Remedies to Racial and Ethnic Economic will be held in Minneapolis on October 11-13.
Wake Forest University Celebrates 50 Years of Racial Integration
In 1962, Ed Reynolds from Ghana became the first Black student to enroll as a full-time student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He returned to the university this past weekend to relate his experiences to current students.
The University of Rochester’s New Online Archive of Historical Documents Relating to Abolition
Included in the archives are letters to the Post family of Rochester from Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass.
Newsletter on Diversity Issues Established at Wayne State University
The newsletter project is under the director of Christopher Jones, director of equal opportunity at Wayne State.
African Studies Institute at the University of Georgia Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary
The two-week celebration being held in the first half of November will include an international conference, theater performances, film screenings, lectures, and other campus events focused on Africa.
Fordham University’s Burial Database Project of Enslaved African Americans
The project aims to create a national database for burial grounds and cemeteries of enslaved African Americans within the United States.
The Discovery of a New Novel by Claude McKay
Jamaican-born author Claude McKay died in 1948 but recently a researcher in the Columbia University archives discovered a novel penned by the key figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
The University of Texas to Offer Ph.D. Program in Black Studies
The doctoral program in Black studies is the first in the state of Texas and the first in the southwestern United States.
Scholar Discovers the Only Known Painting of the Harlem Renaissance’s Gwendolyn Bennett
Most of Bennett's artwork was destroyed in a fire but in conducting research for a book on Bennett, Belinda Wheeler of historically Black Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, came across a 1931 oil painting.
New Summer Institute at Duke for High School Teachers in African American Studies
The new institute will instruct high school teachers on using historical literature and fiction to teach English and social studies classes on African American history.
New Black Resource Center to Open at the University of California at San Diego
The new facility will have a library and offer tutoring services for Black students and workshops for law, medical, and other graduate programs.
New Project Documenting the History of Blacks at Yale Divinity School
The effort is under the director of Moses N. Moore Jr., a graduate of Yale Divinity School who is now an associate professor of religious studies at Arizona State University, and Yolanda Smith, a lecturer in Christian education at Yale Divinity School.
Penn Looks to Hire Its First Independent Africana Studies Faculty
Since the creation of the Center for Africana Studies in 2002, faculty teaching in the field have all had appointments in other departments at the university.
Online Photographic Archive of the “First Blacks in the Americas”
The collection entitled, "First Blacks in the Americas," contains more than 2,900 photographs relevant to African history in what is now the Dominican Republic from the 16th century through colonial times.
Emory Opens New Archive of African American History to Researchers
The family papers of artist and civil rights activist Edwin Harleston and his wife, photographer Elise Harlston, have been fully archived and are now available to researchers at the university's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.
University of Michigan Launches the Understanding Race Project
From January through April, the university will feature public exhibits, lectures, performances, symposia, and other events examining the role of race in American society. During the spring semester, 130 courses dealing with racial issues will be offered students in a wide variety of disciplines.
University of Arizona to Offer a Minor Degree Concentration in Hip-Hop
Among the courses that are offered in the minor degree concentration in the Africana studies program are Rap, Culture, and God, Hip-Hop Cinema, and U.S. and Francophone Hip-Hop Cultures.
University of Cincinnati Reopens Its African American Cultural and Resource Center
The African American Cultural and Resource Center. which was established in 1991, has been undergoing a major renovation project since last August.
Does Race Play Too Big a Role in the Teaching of U.S. History?
The National Association of Scholars released a report that criticizes the history department curricula at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University as being overly concerned with issues of race, class, and gender.
George Mason University Receives Large Archive of Africana Materials
The collection, donated by John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies at the university, includes about 4,000 items including rare books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs.
Most of Timbuktu’s Vast Collection of African History Was Not Lost
The institute's library collection included approximately 30,000 volumes, many of which are one-of-kind manuscripts some dating back 700 years. Although the library was set on fire by a radical Islamist faction, many of the documents had been removed and others were found safe in a locked basement room.
University of South Carolina Project Seeks to Preserve the History of the Civil Rights...
Scholars at the University of South Carolina are establishing an archive documenting the history of the civil rights movement in South Carolina. The project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
University of Pittsburgh Receives Donation of African Artifacts
Among the items donated to the university are a bronze casting of the head of a queen mother from Benin, a helmet mask made of wood and human hair from Tanzania, and a Kente cloth used by members of the royal court of the Ashanti people of Ghana.
University of Florida to Offer a Major in African American Studies
The University of Florida in Gainesville has offered a program in African American studies for the past 45 years but until now students could not major in the discipline.
Vanderbilt University Receives the Papers of a Civil Rights Icon
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a leading figure in the civil rights movement and an associate of Martin Luther King Jr., has donated a significant portion of his papers to the special collections division of the Vanderbilt University Libraries.
Texas Bill Proposes That History Requirement Cannot Be Filled by Ethnic Studies Courses
Under the proposed legislation, only courses that present a "comprehensive survey" of American or Texas history could be used to meet the six-credit history requirement for all bachelor's degree recipients at state universities.
Summer Program Aims to Encourage Students to Become Professors of African American Literature
This June eight college juniors from across the nation will participate in the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Louisiana State University Opens Its New African American Cultural Center
The new, state-of-the-art African American Cultural Center will provide a meeting and conference space, access to a cultural library, a cultural and artifact tour, internet and wireless access and equipment rental. The center hosts a number of events and programs each year.
Bethune-Cookman University Teams Up With the League of Black Women
Under the partnership Bethune-Cookman University, the historically Black educational institution in Daytona Beach, Florida, will become the research arm of the League of Black Women Global Leadership Research Institute.
Historic Marker Placed at the Site of 1963 Sit-In by Tougaloo College Students
Fifty years ago, students from historically Black Tougaloo College staged a sit-in at a lunchcounter in a Woolworth’s store in Jackson, Mississippi. The students were beaten by a White mob. Now a historic marker has been placed at the site of the old Woolworth's store.
