Africana Studies Becomes an Academic Department at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
The African studies program at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, was established more than a half century ago. Now for the first time, it will be an academic department at the college.
Saint Louis University to Elevate African American Studies to Departmental Status
In the 1970s, Saint Louis University began offering its first African-American studies classes. Now a half-century later, the African American studies program will finally become an academic department.
University of Colorado Establishes the Center for African and African American Studies
The center will support teaching, research, and creative work on the history, culture, and struggles of people of African descent and provide a platform to build on the work of the more than 25 CU Boulder faculty members already making contributions to African and African American studies. Professor Reiland Rabaka will direct the new center.
Black Studies at Georgia State University Transitions to Africana Studies
The department of African-American studies at Georgia State University has been renamed the department of Africana studies, reflecting a global approach to teaching and research in the department, as well as national trends in academia, according to the university.
Indiana University Acquires the Archives of African Filmmaker Paulin Vieyra
The Indiana University Black Film Center/Archive has acquired the papers of Paulin Vieyra, the first French-speaking sub-Saharan African to direct a film. Vieyra was born in 1925 in Benin and grew up in Senegal and was educated in Paris. In 1955, he directed the film Afrique sur Seine.
University of Arkansas Little Rock Creates New Center Focusing on Racial Justice
The Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform's stated mission is to advance legal equity, access to justice, and fairness in Arkansas and the region. In addition, the Center will focus on specific criminal justice research projects while offering workshops and educational events for the legal community and the community as a whole.
Pennsylvania State University Launches Its Center for Racial Justice
The new center will be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. It will be housed within the Social Science Research Institute, which aims to foster research addressing critical human and social problems.
Hettie Williams Will Be the Next Leader of the African American Intellectual History Society
Dr. Williams is an associate professor of African American history in the department of history and anthropology at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Her teaching and research interests include: African American intellectual history, gender in U.S. history, and race/ethnicity studies.
Oberlin College in Ohio to Establish the Center on Race and Inequality
President Carmen Twillie Ambar said that “this new center will ensure that Oberlin is consistently contributing to the national conversation on race. The center will bring together academic opportunities, co-curricular experiences, career programming, mentorship, community building, and civic engagement.”
New Living and Learning Community at the University of Denver to Focus on Racial...
The University of Denver has established a new Living and Learning Community within the School of Engineering and Computer Science that will focus on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Ethics in Technology. Ten first-year students are living together and taking courses together.
Brandon Gamble to Head the Black Resource Center at San Diego State University
Before coming to San Diego State University in 2021 as the Charles Bell Faculty Scholar, Dr. Gamble was a faculty member and dean of student success at Oakwood University in Alabama. Earlier, he was the school psychology program coordinator and instructor at California State University, Long Beach.
University at Buffalo Creates the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education
The center, founded and directed by Black history education scholar LaGarrett King, will use research, teacher professional development, networking, and advocacy to answer the enduring question: What is Black history education?
University of Chicago Creates the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity
In outlining the scope of the new department, the faculty committee acknowledged that the core subjects of race, diaspora, and indigeneity are “contested concepts and categories.” Bringing them together will create new opportunities for field-defining research to advance understanding of these concepts, generate new research agendas and train a new generation of scholars.
San Diego State University Decides Not to Accept the Donation of a Black Music...
In 2020, alumni of San Diego State University donated their John Coltrane Memorial Black Music Archive to the university. Later the university requested $500,000 from the donors to properly handle the collection. The university has now decided not to accept the donation.
Louisiana State University Acquires Large Collection of African American Poetry
Louisiana State University has acquired The Wyatt Houston Day Collection of Poetry by African Americans. This collection of more than 800 works includes poetry from the 18th century, the Harlem Renaissance, and later works including up to the present.
New Institute at UCLA to Provide Summer Research Fellowships in Politics for HBCU Students
Four undergraduate fellows from Howard University in Washington, D.C., will come to the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles this June for an immersive six-week academic research program that explores the crucial role of race, ethnicity, and politics in society.
The University of Tennessee Acquires the Personal Archives of Artist Beauford Delaney
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Libraries has acquired the complete personal archive of internationally renowned modernist painter Beauford Delaney (1901–1979). Delaney was a member of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the leading modernist painters of his time.
Vanderbilt University Acquires the Papers of Jazz Musician Yusef Lateef
Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are now home to a rich collection of research materials from the life and career of Yusef A. Lateef, a Grammy-winning musician who played a pioneering role in bringing Middle Eastern and Asian sounds to American jazz.
For the First Time, Students at Michigan State Can Major in African American Studies
For students at Michigan State who choose to major in African American Studies, three concentrations are offered: Communities in Action; Creative Expression, Culture, and Performance; and Black Institutions, Sustainability, and Statecraft.
UCLA Aims to Become a Leader in the Study of Hip-Hop Culture
The Hip Hop Initiative at UCLA will include artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series, an oral history and digital archive project, postdoctoral fellowships, and more.
Boston University Students Can Now Major in African American and Black Diaspora Studies
Over the past several years, the number of students signing up for the African American studies minor each year at Boston University has grown from a handful to more than 40 at one point. Now beginning this fall, students at Boston University will be able to major in African American and Black diaspora studies.
Bryn Mawr College to Require Students to Take a Course on Power, Inequity, and...
Bryn Mawr College, the highly rated liberal arts college for women in Pennsylvania has instituted a new 'Power, Inequity, and Justice' requirement that will be in place when the Class of 2027 arrives on campus in August 2023.
Brandeis University Creates Its First Endowed Chair in Black Studies
The Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies will support a distinguished scholar with a concentration in the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora.
Vanderbilt Law School to Launch a New Journal With a Focus on Social Justice
The Social Justice Reporter will publish scholarship focusing on social justice, civil rights, and public interest lawyering by leading researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and law students.
Two Visiting Scholars Will Enhance the Black Studies Program at Wake Forest University
Grammy award-winning producer and Winston-Salem native Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and renowned poet Brenda Marie Osbey, former poet laureate of the state of Louisiana, will join the Wake Forest University African American studies program as professors of practice for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Georgia Tech Adds a Minor Program in Black Media Studies
The multidisciplinary program combines a variety of innovative approaches and methods to study the relationships between media, culture, and racial politics on people of African descent.
Carleton College in Minnesota Creates an Endowment to Support Africana Studies
The Mary and Fred Easter Endowment for Africana Studies, named for two scholars whose work at the college had a significant impact on the Black student experience beginning in the late 1960s, will provide funds to support and enhance the student academic experience through research, conferences, guest speakers, and other initiatives.
La Salle University in Philadelphia Is Launching a Minor Program in Black Studies
The six-course minor can complement any major, as it broadens and deepens knowledge of the Americas. Students will be able to select courses from a variety of topics including literature, Spanish, education, history, philosophy, religion, and sociology.
Northwestern Faculty Seek to Change the Name of African American Studies Department
The department of African American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has voted unanimously to rename the department to Black studies. The process of officially renaming the department could take as long as a year.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Emory University Offering the First Ph.D. Program in Black Studies in the Southeastern United...
Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor and chair of the African American studies department at Emory University in Atlanta, has announced that the first cohort of Ph.D. students in African American studies will begin the program in the fall of 2023. It will be the first doctoral program in the field in the southeastern United States.
Black Bibliography Project Gets Increased Funding to Expand Its Database
Meredith McGill, chair of the department of English at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Jacqueline Goldsby, a professor of English, African American studies, and American studies at Yale, are developing a digital database dedicated to the study of Black-authored and Black-published books, magazines, and newspapers.
UCLA Law School Project Tracks Anti-Critical Race Theory Efforts Nationwide
The law school’s CRT Forward Tracking Project is the first in the United States to precisely identify, catalog, and contextualize these efforts at the local, state, and federal levels.
The Center for the Study of African American Preaching Established at Anderson University
The Center for the Study of African American Preaching at Anderson University in South Carolina will have two missions: developing significant new scholarship regarding the use of preaching in the Black church and creating a publicly available online library of audio recordings of well-known African American preachers.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Oxford University Press has announced that it is embarking on a project to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been named editor-in-chief of the project.
Thomas Jinnings: The First Black Student at Harvard?
Who was the first African American student at Harvard? This question is not as easy to answer as one might think – and, with the recent discovery of a name buried in an 1841 Harvard catalogue, a new possible answer has come to light.
