Master of Arts student, Forrest Ashworth, graduated this spring after the defense of his thesis, “Black Meteorology: Sable Elyse Smith and Cameron Rowland on Anti-Black Carcerality”. Ashworth will be continuing his studies this fall in …
Professor Shashko recieves the L&S Academic Staff Teaching Excellence Award
Last month, Professor Alexander Shashko was awarded the L&S Academic Staff Teaching Excellence Award. Selected by the Dean of L&S, Eric Wilcots, and a selection committee, this award recognizes excellence in teaching and mentoring undergraduate …
Dr. Carl Grant awarded the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship
Professor Carl Grant, former Chair of the Department of African American Studies and professor of Curriculum and Instruction, has been awarded the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship. This award recognizes outstanding efforts in teaching and service. …
Dr. Clark-Pujara discusses Black Midwesterners before the Great Migration on PBS Wisconsin
This week, Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara appeared on PBS Wisconsin’s “Why Race Matters” segment in an episode on the history of Black Midwesterners before the Great Migration. “If you wanted to understand wealth gaps among African …
Introducing the first research lab in the Department of African American Studies
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, …
Dr. Andrene Wright-Johnson on marrying theory with practice
Dr. Andrene Wright-Johnson joined the Department of African American Studies as an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow in the fall of 2023 after completing an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University. Now …
A visual storyteller
Bob Trondson on the impact of human stories As the founder of Cloud North Films, Bob Trondson brings a passion for history, literature, and a background in African American Studies to his work in documentary …
Spring 2025 Chair’s Letter
In the wake of student activism, our department offered its first classes fifty-five years ago, in the fall of 1970. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 sparked a wave of student …
Badgers in NYC
In partnership with The Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the department traveled with fifteen undergraduates to experience African American and Jewish culture in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Lower East Side through food, museums, and walking …
On service
How UW–Madison professors work to collapse the town and gown divide and illustrate how history is ever affecting our present This spring, four UW–Madison professors continue to bring the Wisconsin Idea to life through their …