The SoulFolk Collective
W.E.B. Du Bois famously asked the question of the Black community: “How does it feel to be a problem?” Drawing inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois’s seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, the SoulFolk Collective (affectionately called “SoCo”) is a community of undergraduate and graduate researchers in the Department of African American Studies at UW–Madison dedicated to positioning Black space as a blueprint for more liberatory futures. In their solution-based research, SoCo centers Black experiences, histories, and futures in scholarly inquiry. The collective aims to touch the very essence of the Black soul—acknowledging its pain, celebrating its joy, and committing to its freedom through every aspect of their scholarship.
This research collective engages in multidisciplinary research that prioritizes Black-affirming methodologies that amplify the voices, stories, and lived realities of Black communities. The research collective is committed to rigorous, disciplined study, ensuring high standards of intellectual and personal integrity while communicating their findings accessibly. This dual mission ensures that the knowledge they generate is meaningful and impactful, especially for the communities they serve. Central to their research practice is thick description (Ryle, 1971)—providing rich, nuanced accounts that give color and depth to the lives, struggles, and joys of those with whom they co-create knowledge. The collective hopes to destabilize established racial categories and reimagine new ways of being and connecting.
The SoulFolk Collective fosters a nurturing environment for creative and critical scholarship that challenges traditional narratives and reimagines other possibilities. Rooted in the Black soul, this research collective is a space where the richness of Black thought and experience is not just observed but deeply felt and woven into the fabric of our collective striving toward liberation for all.
“I had the pleasure of seeing some examples of research spaces that strove to be Black-affirming when I was in graduate school. I knew as soon as I started at UW–Madison that I wanted to build an intellectual community where we focus on the resilience, creativity, brilliance, and freedom dreams of Black people, instead of just the trauma and harm. Academic institutions have historically been sites of exclusion for Black professors and students, and I hope to be a part of reimagining learning spaces through this Black-affirming research lab.”
— Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall
Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Director of SoulFolk Collective
“The SoulFolk Collective’s research and its priorities of embracing Black thought, experience, and life, have provided me with new paths of analysis and community-based research techniques. Our research as a lab pushes forward my research as a Ph.D. student and my hope to continue to understand how Black people’s experiences, connections, relationships and communities interact with history education and Black history curricula.”
— Ziyen Curtis
Curriculum and Instruction Ph.D. student, incoming African American Studies M.A. student, founding SoulFolk Collective research fellow, and SoCo lab manager
“After taking Dr. Stovall’s Intro to African American Studies I realized how much I enjoyed studying revolutionary thinkers and Black resistance throughout history. Through the SoulFolk Collective, I’ve been able to apply my studies to real-world research and contribute to work that preserves Black thriving and joy.”
— Micah Sagers
Biology (African American Studies certificate) undergraduate student and founding SoulFolk Collective research fellow
“The SoulFolk Collective is a space where we can safely exist and interrogate the complexities of being Black and conducting mixed-methods research, and of conducting that research with and for Black communities from our position within this historically anti-Black institution. It is a space where we prioritize the ways of knowing pioneered by our ancestors, where we work not only to preserve them but to implement them in the shaping of our own studies. ”
— Griffin Granberry
African American Studies M.A. student and founding SoulFolk Collective research fellow