College of Letters & Science
“As an African American scholar who has studied the Harlem Renaissance and the experiences of Black Americans living in Denmark, a country I’ve visited 18 times, I have been retracing Larsen’s footsteps in Copenhagen for the last two years.” — Dr. Ethelene Whitmire in “Looking for the Restless Soul of Nella Larsen in Copenhagen” Published …
The Bolz Center for Arts Administration and the Division of the Arts have opened an opportunity for student entrepreneurs with an interest in the arts: Proposals are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 17, 2025. Each year, a talented panel of judges review proposals for creativity, innovation, potential success and added value to the …
Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall has been awarded the Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Writing Award for her article “Black Teachers’ Use of Liberatory Design to Promote Literacies of Healing” co-written with Lamar Timmons-Long, Thomas J. Rodney, and Taylor Hall. This award will be given at the NCTE Annual Convention. Read Dr. Stovall’s article here. …
To the African American Studies community, On behalf of our department, I welcome you to the first edition of our African American Studies newsletter, created to provide students, Alumni, and friends of the program with current happenings within our community here at UW-Madison. In this first edition, you’ll find a spotlight on Forrest Ashworth, a second-year …
Dr. Stovall joined the Department of African American Studies as an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow in the fall of 2023 after completing an M.A. in American Literature from Northwestern and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education, Curriculum and Teacher Education. Stovall graduated from UW-Madison in 2007 with her …
What previous experiences led you here to UW-Madison and into a Masters program in African American Studies? I received my undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There I became interested in conceptual sculpture, especially that displayed publicly, that adopts common objects, materials, and their methods of display. …
Riley Toth | Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering with an African American Studies Certificate Riley Toth has been fascinated by the mechanics of the body and the implications of technology all his life. “I always knew I was going to be an engineer,” Toth states, “I’m invested in the biomedical field because I …
During the May 2024 commencement season, the University of Wisconsin-Madison honored Dr. Reverend Alexander Gee, an African American Studies alumnus, with an honorary degree in recognition of his lifelong dedication to advancing racial equality in the State of Wisconsin. Dr. Gee is a distinguished community activist, educator, and founder of initiatives which promote Black excellence …
A Different Drummer (1962) by William Melvin Kelly This debut novel begins with a mystery. A Black local farmer wakes up one morning, salts his fields, shoots his horse and livestock, and burns his house down. He leaves his small Southern town and never returns. His actions start off an exodus of all the town’s, …
“Sing” | Sesame Street Cast Like so many folks in my generation, Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood are where our music history begins. “Don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear” is as close to a perfect manifesto for loving oneself as you’ll ever find. Listen on YouTube. “Mystery Train” …