Welcome to the Department of Afro-American
Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Department
of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is dedicated
to carrying on the vision of the elders and ancestors who devoted themselves
to the highest standards of intellectual rigor and to the realization of a vision
of true equality and opportunity. Like W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, John
Hope Franklin, Zora Neale Hurston, the Department is committed to bringing the
fruits of academic research to the broadest possible audience, within and beyond
the walls of the University. We believe that the deepest understanding of the
complex reality of race in America requires a truly interdisciplinary approach,
one that draws on history and literature, the social sciences and the arts.
We offer undergraduate majors in five areas: literature and culture; theater,
music and the visual arts; history; Black Women's Studies; and inter-group relations.
Our M.A. program is based on personalized programs of study shaped to meet the
needs of individual students, many of whom participate in the "Bridge"
programs which enable them to move directly into Ph.D. programs in English and
History. Faculty members and students are active in a broad range of activities,
including hip-hop programs for at-risk youth, community theater, college classes
for low-income adults, and various support activities for the National Voting
Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. We pride ourselves on positive working relationships
with our colleagues in traditional disciplines as well as the Women’s Studies
Program and the Department of African Literature & Languages. A vibrant community
of scholars and students who believe in the ideal of unity without uniformity,
we welcome all those committed to the deeper understanding of race in America
and the world. Degrees
Line Breaks: The Remix
The department of Afro-American Studies is excited to be co-sponsoring with the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives the Line Breaks lecture, symposium, and performance series. Marc Bamuthi Joseph's spring 2007 UW Arts Institute residency created a major groundswell of support on campus to more systematically integrate spoken word and hip-hop aestethics and activities into the fabric of university life. The Line Breaks performance and lecture series, curated by Bamuthi and coordinated by OMAI, educated and electrified hundreds of students, faculty, and community members each week about the history, politics, and performance of hip-hop theater. This spring, we are proud to bring Bamuthi back, along with a remixed all-star lineup of hip-hop artists and scholars for 4 amazing days of performances, panels, and discussions. Follow
this link to the OMAI web site for further information.
Announcements
Former Afro-American Studies teaching assistant William Sturkey has been
awarded the Glover Moore Prize by the Mississippi Historical Society. His
major UW-Madison research project, "Houses of Liberty: The Impact of
Freedom Schools During SNCC's 1964 Freedom Summer," was judged the finest
M.A.thesis on Mississippi history or biography completed during the
academic year 2006-2007. Currently, William is a doctoral student in
History at The Ohio State University.
The Afro-American Studies Department will be one of the sponsors of a
series of lectures and cultural events over the course of the fall semester,
entitled "Afro-Cuba at the Crossroads: Arts, Culture, History." Click
here to download a full schedule of events. The series will be exploring
the art, music, dance, film, and other cultural traditions of Afro-Cuban
life. The program has been organized by Afro-American Studies faculty member Prof. Henry J. Drewal. These exciting events will be hosted throughout September, October,
and November.
Two former Afro-American Studies students, Andrew Witt (B.A. 1996) and Simon Wendt (M.A. 2000), have published their first academic books. Dr. Witt, currently on the faculty of Edgewood College, is the author of The Black Panthers in the Midwest (Routledge, 2007). Professor Wendt, who teaches American History at the University of Heidelberg is the author of The Spirit and the Shotgun: Armed Resistance and the Struggle for Civil Rights. (University Press of Florida, 2007). Congratulations! The Afro-American Studies Department would like to extend its warmest
congratulations to Professor Franklin D. Wilson, who this May was granted emeritus status in
recognition for his contributions to the university. Prof. Wilson is now the William H. Sewell-Bascom
Professor of Sociology.
On Monday, May 7, the department hosted a lecture entitled "Breaking Traditions and Taboos in African American Woman's Biography" by Tracy Curtis at 4:30 in the SLIS Common Room. Curtis (Ph.D. from UCLA) has written on the relationships between sexuality, power and voice in contemporary African American women's writing. She has published research on Paul Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle and issues regarding black women's encounters with illness and the health care system.
The
department is proud to congratulate international studies and political
science major Jeffrey Wright, a rising senior at UW. He is a recipient
of the 2006-2007 University Book Store Academic Excellence Award
for the completion of an outstanding independent research study.
Titled "Black Art in the Twenty-First Century: Hip-Hop and the Quest
for a Black Aesthetic," his research project focuses on today's
hip-hop generation and hip-hop music in particular as an expressive
medium through which practitioners dictate a new black consciousness.
The project originated in Prof. Sandra Adell's 603 course on the
Harlem Renaissance, and Prof. Adell served as the project advisor.
The
department co-sponsored a talk by cultural critic T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting,
author of Pimps Up, Hos Down -- Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black
Women on Friday, April 27 at 3:00 in 1195 Grainger Hall. Her
talk was titled "Pimps Up, Hos Down & Imus Out" and
offered a perspective on the racist and sexist comments made by radio
host Don Imus and their complex cultural contexts of race, gender, and
corporate media appropriation. The talk was co-sponsored by Rainbow Bookstore
Cooperative.
On Saturday, April 28,
the department co-sponsored a symposium entitled "Sankofa: Hip Hop,
Gender, and Youth Empowerment" from 12:00 - 3:30 in 6191 Helen C. White
Hall. The keynote speaker was Gwendolyn Pough, associate professor of
Women's Studies and Writing at Syracuse University, who spoke
on women, rap, and hip hop feminism.
The symposium was co-sponsored by the
Center for the Humanities.
We wish to congratulate recent program graduate Charles Hughes, who was
featured in April 22's online Seattle Times article, "Diary
of the EMP pop conference."
Artist and scholar Emeritus Professor David
Driskell gave a public lecture on Thursday, April 26. His lecture,
"Picturing Transcultural Vision," was delivered at the Chazen
Museum, and was preceded by a graduate student workshop in Helen C. White
Hall.
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