The 5 College Africana/Black Studies Consortium

Amherst College Black Studies
https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/black_studies/faculty 
Core faculty:
Rowland O. Abiodun

Stefan Bradley
C. Rhonda Cobham-Sander
Solsiree Del Moral
Elizabeth Herbin-Triant
Jallicia A. Jolly
Jared Loggins
Russell Lohse
Hilary J. Moss
Watufani M. Poe
Khary O. Polk
Olufemi O. Vaughan (Chair) 

Visiting faculty:
Carol Y. Bailey
Cheikh A. Thiam
Contributing faculty:
Amrita Basu
David P. Delaney
Aneeka A. Henderson
Ron Lembo
Sean Redding
Jason Robinson
Jude Sandy
Adam Sitze
Leah D. Hewitt
Dale E. Peterson
Andrea B. Rushing (Emerita)
Martha Saxton
Robyn A. Rogers (Academic Department Coordinator)

Hampshire College Africana Studies
Areas of Study website
Nathalie Arnold
Amy Jordan
Lynda Pickbourn
Daniel Kojo Schrade
Natalie Sowell

Mt. Holyoke College Africana Studies 
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/africana/people 
Patricia A. Banks
Meredith Coleman-Tobias
Amber Douglas
Satyananda J. Gabriel
Samba Gadjigo
Dorothy E. Mosby (Interim Dean of Faculty & Vice President for Academic Affairs)
Olabode Festus Omojola
Preston H. Smith II
Lucas Wilson (Chair of Economics)
Holly J. Sharac (Academic Department Coordinator) 312 Skinner Hall
Phone 413-538-2377Fax 413-538-2513 Email the department

Smith College Africana Studies 
https://www.smith.edu/academics/africana-studies 
Aaron Kamugisha
Daphne Lamothe
Paul Joseph López Oro
Samuel Ng
Traci-Ann Wint
Ann Ferguson
 (Emerita)
Paula Giddings (Emerita)

David Osepowicz  dosepowi@smith.edu Administrative Assistant
Wright Hall 107 Northampton, MA 01063  Phone: 413-585-3572

UMass Du Bois Dept of Afro-American Studies 
https://www.umass.edu/afroam/
Core faculty:
Yolanda Covington Ward (Chair)
John Bracey, Jr.
A Yęmisi Jimoh
Anne Kerth
Agustin Lao-Montes
, Sociology
Toussaint Losier
Traci Parker
Britt Rusert
Amilcar Shabazz
(Graduate Program Director)
James Smethurst
Steven C. Tracy

Emeritus/Retired Faculty:
Ernest Allen, Jr.
Robert Paynter
, Anthropology
Archie Shepp
William Strickland
Esther M.A. Terry
Ekwueme Michael Thelwell
Robert Paul Wolff

Affiliated/Contributing Faculty (partial listing):
Carlene J. Edie, Political Science
Dean Robinson, Political Science
Lisa Green, Linguistics
Gil McCauley, Theater
Judyie Al-Bilali, Theater
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Anthropology
Joye Bowman, History
Doris Clemmons, CMASS
Gretchen Gerzina, English
Rachel Mordecai, English
Jimmy Worthy, English
Patrick Mason, Economics
Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji, Economics
Sancha Medwinter, Sociology
Melissa Wooten, Sociology
Tricia Loveland tlovelan@afroam.umass.edu Administrative Assistant, 329 New Africa
House UMass Amherst Phone: (413) 545-2751

#AngelineWantedHere

Angeline Palmer, after mother died of smallpox she grew up a ward of the town of Amherst; at 11-years old she was the servant of Mason Shaw’s daughter and son-in-law who lived in his Belchertown home. In 1840, Shaw planned to take her to Georgia where he had investments with the intention to sell her into slavery.

Three Amherst men were put on trial for liberating Angeline:

Henry Jackson, local teamster who was thought very loyal to the sheriff’s office

William Jennings, oldest of the three Underground Railroad conductors

Lewis Frazier, brother of Angeline who organizes to rescue his sister

Edward Dickinson, lawyer for Angeline’s liberators.

David Ruggles, contributor to The Liberator and other abolitionist newspapers.

https://davidrugglescenter.org/david-ruggles/

The Institute of the Black World and the Making of Black Studies

Institute of the Black World: 
One of the founding institutions at the 1960s birth of Black Studies, the IBW reignited the radical Black tradition by linking academic work with the Black Liberation Movement.  The IBW Legacy Group has organized seven ZOOM seminars exploring IBW history and more (see below).  You can register at this link: bit.ly/IBW50Plus

History is not only about the past.  We need to use historical reflection as a guide to the future. Abdul Alkalimat, as an IBW founder, has generously opened his personal IBW archives to the people; click here: http://alkalimat.org/ibw/

SESSION#1: Tuesday, June 29
The Origins and Mission of IBW
This program critically assesses IBW’s role as a think tank for black struggle, discusses the role of Dr. Vincent Harding within the Institute and explores ways in which IBW’s experiences are relevant to today’s struggles. WIlliam “Bill” Strickland is the featured presenter in this opening session.

SESSION #2: Tuesday, July 13 
Understanding the New Black Poetry
Dr. Stephen Henderson, an intellectual architect of the Institute, taught in the first of IBW’s Summer Symposia in 1969 and wrote and produced the book Understanding the New Black Poetry. This collection framed the seismic shift that occurred in African American arts and letters in the 1960s. This session looks at the ways in which that shift has developed and morphed over the years since.

SESSION #3: Tuesday, July 20 
Remaking the Past to Make the Future: The New Black History
This program explores the evolution of Black History from the late 1960s to the present and its relevance to the future of Black America.

SESSION #4: Tuesday, July 27 
Education for Liberation
This session will look at our goals in the struggle for a New Black Education. As an IBW Monthly Report said in August 1973, “The education of our children is our responsibility. We cannot place it in anyone else’s hands.” 

SESSION #5 : Tuesday, August 3 
The New Black Studies
This session assesses IBW’s role in promoting, informing and supporting the development of Black Studies with an emphasis on two seminal Black Studies conferences and a variety of publications and consultancies.

SESSION #6: Tuesday, August 10 
The New Black Agenda
IBW drafted “The Gary Declaration….” With additions and revisions, it became the National Black Agenda of 1972. This session discusses contemporary black agendas against the backdrop of the Gary Declaration.

SESSION #7: Tuesday August 17
Following the Ancestors’ Footsteps into the Future
Tribute to the Ancestors.

Abdul Alkalimat, born Gerald A. McWorter, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of African American Studies and School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Amilcar Shabazz, Professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts and is the President of the National Council for Black Studies.

Critical Race Theory: What is it? Why is it important?

Critical race theory has its origins in the work of lawyer, civil rights activist and scholar Derrick Bell and Kimberlé CrenshawRichard DelgadoMari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams, among others. It is rooted in critical theory, which argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. It argues first, that white supremacy in the form of societal or structural racism exists and maintains power through the law; and second, that transforming the relationship between law and racial power, and also achieving racial emancipation and the elimination of social stratification and hierarchies is both possible and desirable.

Definitions

A guide to critical race theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rDu_VUpoJ8

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Key Scholars

Derrick Bell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Bell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVy8w0Sz9LY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zYD1q8B30

Kimberle Crenshaw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberl%C3%A9_Williams_Crenshaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNKbGFoYC1Q

Richard Delgado
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Delgado
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS-1fEHVA4U

Patricia Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_J._Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUtgmOHgpCQ

Organizations/Journals

American Bar Association
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/

Critical Race Studies in Education Association
https://www.crsea.org/

Education Week
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

Journal of Critical Race Inquiry
https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/CRI

Equity and Excellence in Education
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713845285

American Behavioral Scientist
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/abs/63/13

Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/mcrp-journal/

Curriculum

National map of course locations
https://criticalrace.org/

Brown
https://blogs.brown.edu/amst-2220j-s01-2017-fall/

Columbia
https://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/courses/27030

Harvard
https://hls.harvard.edu/academics/curriculum/catalog/default.aspx?o=76762

Stanford
https://law.stanford.edu/courses/critical-race-theory/

University of Massachusetts Amherst

https://catalog.umass.edu/gradbulletin/2020-2021/Page17581.html

Black Studies

Penn State
https://afam.la.psu.edu/people/areas-of-specialization/critical-race-theory

University of the West Indies
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi8leH5rIjxAhWUbs0KHW6qC7Q4ChAWMAF6BAgUEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cavehill.uwi.edu%2Ffhe%2Fhistphil%2Fchips%2Farchives%2F2008%2Fdocs%2Fparker2008.aspx&usg=AOvVaw1DOTsbkjtHIlblfMJCxrZ

Warren Wilson College
https://www.warren-wilson.edu/programs/africana-studies/

The Controversy

National Public Radio
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1001055828/the-brewing-political-battle-over-critical-race-theory

The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/gops-critical-race-theory-fixation-explained/618828/

Michigan State University
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2021/ask-the-expert-critical-race-theory-attack-in-schools

Portside
https://portside.org/2021-06-07/how-critical-race-theory-became-new-conservative-bogeyman

Abdul Alkalimat, born Gerald A. McWorter, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of African American Studies and School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Amilcar Shabazz, Professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts and is the President of the National Council for Black Studies.

New Developments in Africana/Black Studies

BLACK STUDIES CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE AND SURVIVE!

Histories of Black Studies
University of Michigan: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/daas/
San Francisco State University: https://africana.sfsu.edu/content/history
Cornell: https://africana.cornell.edu/node/1421
Duke: https://trinity.duke.edu/news/always-motion-50-years-black-studies-duke
Northwestern: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15175
University of Illinois at Springfield: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15173 
South Suburban Community College: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15171
Loyola (Chicago): http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15172

New Black Studies Departments
St. Louis University: https://unewsonline.com/2021/03/african-american-studies-to-become-a-department/
Louisiana State: https://www.jbhe.com/2021/01/louisiana-state-university-elevates-black-studies-to-departmental-status/
Stanford: https://news.stanford.edu/today/2021/03/22/departmentalizing-african-african-american-studies-aaas-program/
Bowdoin College: https://bowdoinorient.com/2021/03/12/africana-studies-program-becomes-full-department/
Michigan State University: https://statenews.com/article/2021/03/new-aaas-department-share-plans
Washington University: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/11/black-studies-achieves-departmental-status-at-washington-university-in-st-louis/

UC San Diego approves new undergraduate degree in Black Diaspora and African American Studies
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-san-diego-approves-new-undergraduate-degree-black-diaspora-and-african-american-studies

Only Black Studies graduate admits for U of Chicago English Department
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/09/16/university-chicago-english-faculty-prioritizes-black-studies-graduate-students-2021

New Houston Black Studies Consortium
https://www.jbhe.com/2021/02/four-houston-area-universities-form-a-black-studies-consortium/

Editorial | Pitt’s lack of progress, transparency on a Black studies course requirement is unacceptable
https://pittnews.com/article/165121/opinions/editorial-pitts-lack-of-progress-transparency-on-a-black-studies-course-requirement-is-unacceptable/

Class examines public health through the lens of Africana studies
https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/04/13/africana-studies-public-health-shilliam-white/

Rowan DEI Invites Africana and International Studies Professors to Discuss COVID-19’s Impact on Africans
https://thewhitonline.com/2021/03/news/rowan-dei-invites-africana-and-international-studies-professors-to-discuss-covid-19s-impact-on-africans/

Black Liberation Movement Archives
Washington University Documenting Ferguson: http://digital.wustl.edu/ferguson/
University of Georgia, Civil Rights Digital Library: http://crdl.usg.edu/
Harvard Documenting BLM: https://www.jbhe.com/2020/08/harvard-university-gallery-creating-a-living-archive-of-the-black-lives-matter-movement/
Cal State University Dominguez Hills: https://www.jbhe.com/2020/07/california-state-university-dominguez-hills-acquires-massive-archive-of-black-history/

Contributed to by Abdul Alkalimat, mcworter@illinois.edu and Amilcar Shabazz, shabazz@umass.edu