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” …

Rayna Cunningham | Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology with an African American Studies Certificate Rayna Cunningham has spent her time at UW–Madison as both a scholar and an artist. In her last semester as an undergraduate student, Cunningham worked alongside Dr. Anthony Black to create a mixed media exhibition on Afro-surrealism and the tradition of …

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. …

Evan Wooldridge joined more than 8,500 UW–Madison seniors in the Kohl Center and Camp Randall when he graduated in May of 2024. In the same month, Wooldridge was selected as a recipient of the Tom Shick Award, an honor afforded to two exemplary UW students each May who have maintained a high academic standing, demonstrated …

Visitors of Madison, Wisconsin’s Chazen Museum of Art discovered artifacts, paintings, photographs, textiles, multimedia, and documentary evidence of African Americans living abroad in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden when they entered the second-floor exhibition, Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the 20th Century, curated by the Department of African American Studies professor Dr. Ethelene Whitmire and Leslie …