Professor Esther Ngumbi, Assistant Professor of Entomology and African American Studies, has informed us of a recent publication milestone. She shared the early manuscript of a recently accepted manuscript that resulted from her collaboration with Dr. Angela Kent (of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences), and her PhD student Sierra Raglin. The article is titled “Herbivory...
Dr. Harrison will be the Keynote Speaker at the 13th Annual Graduate Student Conference where she will present "Education as a Practice for Freedom". The theme of the conference is "Education in Unprecedented Times: Making Education Accessible to All" and will be held Friday, March 4, 2022 at the College of Education and via Zoom. Admission is free but registration is required.
Members of the African American Studies Department attended the LAS New Faculty and Newly Promoted Faculty Reception in the Fall of 2021. Pictured left to right: AFRO Head Ronald Bailey, LAS Dean Venetria Patton, Assistant Professor Alexia Williams, and Professor Merle Bowen. Not pictured: Professor Ruby Mendenhall.
For Land and Liberty is a comparative study of the history and contemporary circumstances concerning Brazil’s quilombos (African-descent rural communities) and their inhabitants, the quilombolas. The book examines the disposition of quilombola claims to land as a site of contestation over citizenship and its meanings for Afro-descendants, as well as...
Dr. Bobby Smith II has received the 2021 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. Read the full article here. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Smith on all his hard work thus far!- The Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stands in solidarity with educators, students, and community members nationwide in denouncing the escalating violence directed at Asian and Asian American communities this past year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We denounce the surge of attacks directed at Asian and Asian American...
Full article: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1471956550
A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of African American studies, Bobby Smith II – have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowships. “Congratulations to professors Ledesma and Smith on their selection for these highly competitive,...
African American Studies’ core faculty members Faye Harrison and Esther Ngumbi have joined Ken Salo (Urban & Regional Planning/African Studies), Krystal Smalls (Anthropology/Linguistics), Cameron McCarthy (EPOL/Institute of Communications Research [ICR]); doctoral students Chibundo Egwuatu (Anthropology), Lila Ann Dodge (Anthropology), and Adrian Wong (Media/ICR); and others in forming a...
Dr. Faye Harrison published an op-ed article, “How a Divided America Faces a Convergence of Multiple Crises,” in Pravda, a major center-left newspaper in Slovakia.
Once again, we have witnessed white police and vigilantes murder Black people in the United States. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade died violently and needlessly at the hands of white police officers and vigilantes. Their tragic and senseless deaths have triggered massive social protest in the United States and globally. We are truly living in...
Two articles authored by Dr. Bobby J. Smith II are featured in the 7th Edition of An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System (January 2020) by the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems.
AFRO will be hosting three candidates for a new joint-position with the Department of Religion and the Department of African American Studies. Each candidate will be presenting their research and each talk is free and open to faculty, staff, and students. These events will offer insightful commentary on the intersection of religion and the Black experience. We look forward to seeing you! ...
Pest management and preventative measures are discussed in Dr. Ngumbi's article featured on theconversation.com
Dr. Desirée McMillion’s AFRO 382 – African American Families in Film class, had the privilege of a full two hour discussion with Director, Chuck Smith of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Smith shared his life story on becoming a well-known director and his connection with Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. “Gem of the Ocean” - part of August Wilson’s American...