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...
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...
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...
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. “...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Dr. Karen Flynn has received two awards for her article, "Hotel Refuses Negro Nurse": Gloria Clark Baylis and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel
The Department of African American Studies enthusiastically welcomes Dr. Smith and Dr. Ngumbi to the faculty as Assistant Professors. Dr. Smith's work focuses on food justice in the United States, local food systems, race & class in food politics, and activism. More specifically,...