Two of the Department of African American Studies' very own, Professors Mary Phillips and Bobby J Smith II, have been selected as part of the cohort for The OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship 2025-26!  The program is in its seventh year.  "The ...

AFRO is very pleased to share that Professor Leonard McKinnis of the department of African American Studies and the department of Religion has been named General Editor of the Religion, Race, and Ethnicity Series with NYU Press. He is the second editor of this Series, following Peter Paris who...

The Department of African American Studies (AFRO) hosted its annual Awards Ceremony on May 2nd, 2025, to recognize the accomplishments of faculty and 1 graduate student from the 2024-2025 academic year.  Each year, the ceremony aims to fulfill AFRO's mission statement, "celebrating academic...

In recognition of Father's Day, professor Esther Ngumbi was featured in another NPR, Goats and Soda, opinion piece.  In the article, she discusses the importance of her father, Harrison Ngumbi's defiance of a Kenyan cultural belief systems about educating daughters and its importance...

Accolades go to Dr. Erik S. McDuffie, associate professor for both the Department of African American Studies and History, who has been recognized for several faculty honors: received 2025 Campus Distinguished Promotion Award; named Dean's Distinguished Professorial Scholar for the 2025-2026...

 Prof. Bobby J. Smith II had the pleasure of hosting the annual senior thesis research symposium.  This year's research topic focused on "(Re) Evaluating the Black Experience", where 8 students presented their final work: Zoe Howard, Tommy Pettie, Vans Smallwood, Faith Lee, Nyx...

On February 18, 2025 the department of African American Studies hosted a "Hot Chocolate and Donuts" social.  The social hour was a time for faculty and AFRO's majors and minors students to mingle in order to build community.   

Prof. Sundiata Cha-Jua was featured in an Illinois Public News article where he was interviewed about police misconduct in Champaign County. "CHAMPAIGN — In 2009, the fatal shooting of a teenager by a Champaign Police officer sparked calls for change in the years that followed...

Professor Esther Ndumi Ngumbi featured in NPR (opinion; Washington, D.C.) on the role her mother played in life and career."I want you to study hard so that you can rescue our family from poverty. Your father and I are poor and the only gift we can give you is an education. You are intelligent....