To kick off the fall semester, the Department of African American Studies co-hosted an Ethnic Studies mixer event with Gender and Women’s Studies to mingle, mix, and share ideas between the faculty, staff, and students of ethnic studies programs. With the success of the day, the department aims to make this an annual reoccurring event. In her opening remarks, Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara noted: “Some of the most generative and exciting conversations I have had on this campus have been with folks in this room and from these units.” During the mixer, new introductions between faculty and students of different departments were highly encouraged.
In the spring of 2026, the Department of African American Studies is planning to move a few blocks across campus into a new College of Letters & Science build, Levy Hall. We are particularly excited to be making this move with American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Asian American Studies, Chican@ and Latin@ Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, the History Department, Jewish Studies, and Religious Studies whose departments all made appearances at the 2024 Ethnic Studies Mixer. Construction on the building began this summer. The project received $60 million in state funding support, $35 million in gifts, and a $20 million contribution from Jeff Levy (1972) and Mary Levy (1968).
