The 2025–2026 academic year has been a banner year for the Department of African American Studies. We celebrated our 55th anniversary with a three-day symposium attended by over 100 alumni, faculty, students, staff, administrators, friends of the department, and community members. We welcomed two new faculty members, Professors Sabrina Thomas and Max Felker-Kantor, who have expanded our course offerings and brought renewed energy to programming in the department. We expanded our annual student symposium to include graduate students and awarded prizes for best papers. We also began a fundraising campaign for The SoulFolk Saturday School, which will open in 2027. Finally, the department facilitated the transition of the Essence Floor Themed Community to the Essence Floor Learning Community. Essence welcomes all students interested in learning about the Black diaspora and impacted peoples through events, dialogue, and community-building, while bolstering a sense of belonging on campus through events and academic programming, including an “Introduction to African American Studies” seminar reserved for Essence residents in Witte Hall.

Our 2026 Student Symposium celebrated the department’s origins in late-1960s Black student activism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and its ongoing evolution as an interdisciplinary field. Featuring 22 undergraduate and graduate presenters from across campus—including history, poetry, sociology, political science, education policy, public health, and STEM—the symposium highlighted projects that center Black life, joy, thought, and art. The event emphasized rigorous yet generous dialogue, inviting attendees to see Black studies as a vital site of knowledge production, critique, and imagination. The presentations and papers acknowledged the courage and labor of students working in institutions and archives not built with them in mind, and honored the scholarship, mentorship, staff support, and community engagement that make such work possible. Ultimately, the symposium offered a snapshot of where Black studies is headed—interdisciplinary scholarship that goes deeper into communities, toward futures that students are helping to envision and build.

The Department of African American Studies is grateful for the tremendous support our community has already shown for The SoulFolk Saturday School. With the generosity of our partners and friends, the department convened three enthusiastic and committed allies to develop a fundraising strategy that has, to date, raised over $130,000 in donations for The SoulFolk Saturday School. This support has helped us take major steps toward launching this Freedom School, a culturally grounded Saturday program for Black high school students in Madison, Wisconsin. Housed within the Center for Black Excellence and Culture and run by The SoulFolk Collective, a research lab founded by Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall, the Saturday School is being designed as a radically reimagined educational space where Black history, literature, and art form the foundation of every lesson. It is a place where Black students are encouraged to explore and express the full range of their identities, experiences, and creativity. Rooted in care for the whole community, the program provides nourishing meals for students, families, and community members, along with free mental and physical wellness services to support students both body and mind. It also creates intentional time and space for teachers and students to research, plan, and engage in collective organizing for social change, nurturing a generation of informed, connected, and empowered young leaders.

Even with this strong early support, we are still building the resources needed to fully realize this vision: ensuring that the program remains free, sustainable, and expansive in its offerings. Continued community investment will allow us to deepen our curriculum, grow our wellness services, support our educators, and increase access for more Black students and families in Madison. We extend our sincere thanks to all who have contributed so far, and we invite ongoing partnership from those who share our commitment to building liberatory educational spaces for Black youth. Your support is not only appreciated, but essential to making The SoulFolk Saturday School a reality.

As we look back on this remarkable year, I am struck by how powerfully our past, presents, and futures are converging. From celebrating 55 years of Black studies at UW–Madison, to witnessing our students claim and extend that legacy through the symposium, to laying the groundwork for The SoulFolk Saturday School and deepening our commitment to the student body through the Essence Learning Community, our department continues to grow in ways that are both intellectually rigorous and deeply rooted in community. None of this would be possible without you: our students, alumni, staff, faculty, donors, friends and community partners whose support generosity sustains this work every day. As we move into the coming year, I invite you to stay connected, to keep challenging and imagining with us, and, where you are able, to continue supporting our efforts to build liberatory spaces for Black life and learning on campus and beyond.

With gratitude and optimism,

Christy Clark-Pujara

Chair and Professor