Previous News & Events

 

Catherine Adams' Dissertation Defense

Monday, August 23rd at 10:00 a.m.

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Jacqueline Jones' Dissertation Defense

Thursday, August 19th at 2:00 p.m.

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Spring 2010 Du Bois Colloquium Series
A presentation by Jorge Guerrero Veloz Consul General of Venezuela
“The Politics of Inclusion: The Rights of
Afro-Venezuelans under the Chavez Administration”

Monday, April 5th, 2010
12 noon W.E.B. Du Bois Library, 26th Floor
UMass Amherst

(Click on the following link for pdf flyer: 4_5_10Colloq-1)

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Making Connections: Life After UMass Amherst
A Student/Alumni/ae Networking Event

Thursday, April 8th, 2010
4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union Building

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David Lucander's Dissertation Defense

“It is a New Kind of Militancy”: March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946

  

       Monday, March 8th @ 2:00 p.m.

School of Management, Room 35

UMass Amherst

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Christopher Tinson's Dissertation Defense

"The Fight For Freedom Must Be Fought On All Fronts:
The Liberator Magazine and Black Radicalism In The United States, 1960-1971"

Friday, February 26th at 12:30 p.m.
Campus Center, Room 905

UMass Amherst

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Lessons in Cuba Series
"Cubans and Cuban-Americans Confronting a New Millennium"

Monday, February 22nd at 4:00 p.m.
W.E.B. Du Bois Library, Room 2601
UMass Amherst

Speakers: Jorge Dominguez, Harvard University
Susan Eckstein, Boston University
Moderator:  Agustin Lao-Montes, Sociology, UMass Amherst

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Earthquake in Haiti: What Can I Do

Wednesday, January 27th at 4:00 p.m.

Campus Center Room 174-176

UMass Amherst

Click here for pdf flyer: HaitiFlyer

 

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Black Poetry of the 1960s and 70s

Thursday, November 19th at 4:00 p.m.
Campus Center, 10th Floor, Amherst Room

A Panel of Distinguished Artists Featuring:

Sam Cornish
Everett Hoagland
Sonia Sanchez
Askia Toure

Click here for a pdf flyer.

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The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies present

“Lessons from the Cuban Revolution”
The two panels associated with this event will reconsider the teaching of the Cuban Revolution to a post-Cold War student generation, critically assess 50+ years of Cuba's domestic and international revolutionary practices, and reaffirm connections between Cuban Studies and Black Studies.

Rountable #1
“Contested Visions of Cuba's Domestic & International Revolutionary Practices”
Wednesday, September 23rd, 4-6pm, Campus Center rooms 174-176

Roundtable #2
“Race in Contemporary Cuba: Demographics, Rights, and Culture”
Tuesday, December 1st, 4-6pm, Campus Center, rooms 174-176

Click here for a pdf flyer.

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A Reception: For faculty connected to interdisciplinary programs and departments
that address issues of gender, race, and class.


OCTOBER 7th, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Reading Room
New Africa House, 2nd Floor

The W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Asian and Asian American  Studies Certificate Program, the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies, Native American and  Indian Studies, and Women, Gender,  Sexuality Studies (formerly Women's Studies) invite you to a reception for faculty connected to interdisciplinary programs and departments that address issues of gender, race, and class. 

We particularly hope this gathering will help newer faculty make connections with colleagues outside their programs who are doing similar work, deepening and widening he networks
we have already built.

Supported by the UMass Amherst Office of Faculty Development's Mutual Mentoring Initiative Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

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Professor and Chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
Amilcar Shabazz
has been elected to membership in the Texas Institute of Letters.Shabazz will be formally introduced as a new inductee at the Institute's annual meeting in Texas, this coming April 17th and 18th.

Click here for details.

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Bringing Change to Ghana

Alumna Shannan Magee opens a school for girls.

See the UMass article at: http://www.umass.edu/umhome/feature-story/article/3.

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Jonathan Fenderson, Ph.D. Student, Afro-American Studies
has been awarded a two-year pre-doctoral fellowship at
The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American Studies
at the University of Virginia.

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"Whites Break New Ground by Teaching Black Studies:
40th anniversary of African-American studies, only a few white scholars are teaching the discipline"
By Dawn Turner Trice | Tribune reporter March 5, 2009

Featuring Du Bois Department Ph.D. Graduates Shawn Alexander and Thomas Edge

Click on the following link to view the article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-black-studies-for-whites-05-mar05,0,1523538.story.

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Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2008

Christopher P. Lehman's The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954 ( University of Massachusetts Press ) and Jennifer Jensen Wallach's ‘Closer to the Truth Than Any Fact': Memoir, Memory, and Jim Crow ( University of Georgia Press ) were selected as Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2008. Both books began as dissertations in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of
Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Christopher Lehman (Ph.D. 2002), an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at St. Cloud State University , in terms of books, is our most prolific graduate thus far. His previous efforts include American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era (2006) and A Critical History of Soul Train on Television (2008). Jennifer Jensen Wallach (Ph.D. 2004) currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Georgia College and State University . She has published several scholarly articles, and among other projects is at work on a biography of Richard Wright.

For additional information or to answer any questions please contact Professor John Bracey or
Tricia Loveland at 413-545-2751 or email tlovelan@afroam.umass.edu .

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Professor Manisha Sinha writes about the historical significance
of Obama's inuguration in The Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manisha-sinha/the-grand-old-party-of-se_b_198844.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manisha-sinha/we-are-all-americans-in-t_b_161212.html

Professor Manisha Sinha was quoted in an article on Lincoln in the US News and World Report.
http://www.usnews.com/mobile/articles_mobile/abraham-lincolns-great-awakening-from-moderate-to-abolitionist/index.html

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Farewell Celebration for Esther Terry!

The campus community is cordially invited
to attend a farewell celebration
honoring Dr. Esther M. Terry
and her 40 years at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Friday, May 29, 2009
4:00-6:00 pm
Student Union Ballroom

We proudly honor Dr. Terry as she retires from UMass Amherst,
serving most recently as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life,
to become Provost at her alma mater, Bennett College for Women.

The Esther M. Terry Award

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CLASS OF 2009
GRADUATION CELEBRATION !!

Friday, May 22nd
4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
2nd Floor, New Africa House
UMass Amherst

Click here for details (pdf).

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EMERGENT RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM #4
Friday, May 1st @ 2:00 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
2nd Floor, New Africa House, UMass Amherst

"Organizations Unite!: Collective Action and the Formation of the United Negro College Fund"
An Essay by Professor Melissa Wooten, Sociology Department

Click here for pdf flyer.

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Thursday, April 30th
7:00 p.m.
Food for Thought Books Collective

Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918.
Multi– Media Presentation with author Jeffrey Perry

The presentation will be followed by an interactive discussion led by guest scholars
Ousmane K. Power-Greene, Assistant Professor, History Department, Clark University
and Jennifer Guglielmo, Assistant Professor of History, Smith College.

Click here for details.

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ART FROM THE HEART
by Yusef Lateef

Opening Reception Thursday, April 16th
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

August Savage Art Gallery
New Africa House
UMass Amherst

Thursday, April 16 - Thursday, April 30
A solo exhibition of recent works by Yusef Lateef.

Visit the Augusta Savage Art Gallery website for details at
http://www.umass.edu/fac/calendar/augusta/allEvents.html

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ROOTS & ROUTES
IN AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES
Past, Present & Future

Saturday, April 25th
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
2nd Floor, New Africa House
UMass Amherst

Opening Keynote Address by Esther Terry
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

Luncheon Keynote Address by Ekwueme Michael Thelwell
Founding Chair and Professor Emeritus

Panel Presentations by Undergraduates and Graduates, as well as by
Faculty Members from the Five College Black Studies Departments.

Click here for jpeg flyer.

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Thursday, April 2, 2009
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Cape Cod Lounge, UMass Amherst

MAKING CONNECTIONS: LIFE AFTER UMASS
A STUDENT/ALUMNI NETWORKING EVENT
Featuring Afro-American Studies, Labor Center ,
STPEC and Women's Studies alums

See event details at http://www.umass.edu/umhome/events/articles/84309.php.

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Friday, March 27th at 2:00 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
New Africa House, UMass-Amherst

Emergent Research Colloquium #3
"Astro-Blues and Cosmo-Spirituals: Sun Ra the Traditionalist"
An essay by Jim Carroll
Ph.D. candidate in the Du Bois Department

Click here for a pdf flyer.

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Thursday, March 12th at 6:30 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
New Africa House, UMass-Amherst

BLACK WOMEN AND BLACK POWER:
A Roundtable on Politics & Art of the 1960s

Cheryl Clarke, Rutgers University
Andrea Rushing, Amherst College
Daphne Lamothe, Smith College
Dayo Gore & Yemisi Jimoh, UMass

Click here for a pdf flyer.

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Wednesday, March 11th at 6:00 p.m.
Film: TROUBLE the WATER
It's not about a hurricane. It's about America

*Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival!!
A powerful documentary on Hurricane Katrina with home video footage by Kimberly Rivers Roberts.
From the Producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine.

"Remarkable! A story of community resilience in the face of government indifference."

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February 27th
"Working with Social Movements: Lessons from the Front Lines"
12:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Sonia Alvarez
Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies
M. V. Lee Badgett
Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration 
Stephanie Luce
Associate Professor and Acting Chair of the Labor Center
Amilcar Shabazz
Professor and Chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies

Event sponsored by the Public Engagement Project (PEP).

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February 24th
Professor Kwame Dawes, University of South Carolina
7:30 p.m., Augusta Savage Art Gallery
"Reggae and History: How Reggae Shaped the Way We Understand History"

Poet and activist Kwame Dawes is also the Louise Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts, Distinguished Poet in Residence,
Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative, and Director of the USC Arts Institute.

Co-sponsored by the Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas (CISA) and
the Afro-American Studies Department.

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February 9 - March 13
"Gems in the Valley: A Toast to Nelson Stevens"
Augusta Savage Gallery, New Africa House

Showcasing a range of styles and mediums dating back to the 1970s, Nelson Stevens’ works on paper,
canvas, doors, board, album covers, and prints in magazines and calendars attest to his prolific career as a
visual artist, teacher, arts activist, and cultural ambassador.

See the Augusta Savage Gallery website for details at www.umass.edu/fac/augusta/.

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February 23rd
"Remembering Lincoln and the Black Struggle for Freedom in the Age of Obama"
5:30 - 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall

The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies will commemorate Black History Month at the university with a conference on Abraham Lincoln and black emancipation. It is appropriate to celebrate black history month at the university with a public event that will examine Lincoln 's legacy on race and black rights at a historic moment in US history, the inauguration of the nation's first African American President who evokes the words and example of Lincoln . Moreover, 2009 is also the Bicentennial of Lincoln's birth with celebrations planned all across the nation and state. President Jack Wilson is a member of Massachusetts ' Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Chair: John Bracey, Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts

John Stauffer, Professor of English, Harvard University
“Douglass, Lincoln, Obama: Influences and Legacies of these Self-Made Men”

Manisha Sinha, Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts , Amherst
“Allies for Emancipation: Black Abolitionists and Lincoln”

6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Reception and book party following the panel. The book display will showcase the latest scholarship on
Lincoln and the Civil War era written by the participants.

Sponsors for the Event: W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, Campus Center Book Store, Vice Provost for Research, Five Colleges, Inc., and Teaching American History Program of the Springfield Public Schools.

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February 21st
The Aesthetics of Blackness Conference
2:00 p.m., Seeyle Hall, Smith College

Panelist: Professor Amilcar Shabazz,
Chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies

Event sponsored by the Smith College Black Student Alliance.

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February 20th
Emergent Research Colloquium #2
2:00 p.m., Shirley Graham Du Bois Library, New Africa House

Professor John Higginson, UMass History Department
"Scorched Earth: The Etiology and Spread of Guerilla Organization
in the Western Transvaal, July 1900 to December 1902"

Event sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
and the Africana Studies Faculty Cluster.

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February 12th
Film: "Look Back & Wonder"
5:30 - 8:00 p.m., Malcolm X Cultural Center

A documentary film by Professor Ernest Allen, Jr., about African
American students on the UMass Amherst campus. After enjoy a "Taste of Africa"
sponsored by Baku's, a local African Restaurant.

See the Office of Programs and Services for ALANA Students website for details
at http://www.umass.edu/multiculturalaffairs/newsevents/.

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February 5th
W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture Series
Black Europeans: Race and the New Europe
4:30 - 5:30 p.m., 917 Campus Center

"Immigration and National Identity in the New Europe"
Professor Dominic Thomas, UCLA

Professor Dominic Thomas chairs the departments of French and Francophone Studies and Italian at the University of
California Los Angeles. He is the author of Nation-Building, Propaganda and Literature in Francophone Africa
and Black France: Colonialism, Immigration and Transnationalism.

Sponsored by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts "Visioning" Grant Conveners: Profs. Sara Lennox and Jonathan Skolnik,
Program in German and Scandinavian Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, UMass Amherst.

Click here for a pdf flyer.

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February 9 - March 13
"Gems in the Valley: A Toast to Nelson Stevens"
Augusta Savage Gallery, New Africa House

Opening Reception
February 9th, 5 - 7 p.m.

Showcasing a range of styles and mediums dating back to the 1970s, Nelson Stevens’ works on paper,
canvas, doors, board, album covers, and prints in magazines and calendars attest to his prolific career as a
visual artist, teacher, arts activist, and cultural ambassador.

See the Augusta Savage Gallery website for details at www.umass.edu/fac/augusta/.

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February 10th
"Reflections on the Civil Rights Movement"
Charles E. Cobb, Jr.
2:30 p.m., 311 New Africa House

Author of On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trial

Black History Month Event sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Afro-American Studies Department
and the Five College Public School Partnership.

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Bunker Hill
Film and Introduction by
Director Kevin Willmott
Professor, University of Kansas

Monday, November 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Herter Hall, Room 231
UMass/Amherst

(click here for pdf flyer)

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Emergent Research Colloquium #1
"Sweet, Nasty, and Sassy: Black Women's Salt
Sprinkles of the African Diaspora"
An essay by Allia Matta, Du Bois Department Ph.D. student

Friday, November 7th
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Room #309, New Africa House
(click here for pdf flyer)

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Graduation Party 2008

Friday, May 23rd
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library

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Esther Terry Award Event (April 23, 2008)
Click here to view our picture collage

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Look Back and Wonder
A Documentary Film by Ernest Allen, Jr.
Wednesday, April 30th @ 7:30 p.m.
Room 137, School of Management
(click here for pdf flyer)

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The Fire Next Time Colloquium
Wednesday, April 30th
@ 4:30 p.m.
Shirley Graham Du Bois Library
2nd Floor, New Africa House
(click here for pdf flyer)

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National Hip Hop Conference

Triggering Change
HipHop, Media, Justice & Social Responsibility

APRIL 25th and 26th, 2008
School of Management, UMass Amherst

For more information contact triggeringchange08@gmail.com

(Click here for pdf flyer)

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BODY POLITICS 2008

Directed by Keli Stewart

The Women of Color Leadership Network Presents:
An original production about women of color and body image.

Dates and Times:      Saturday April 26, 2007, @7pm in SUB
                                Sunday   April 27, 2007@2pm in CCA

For more information please call 545-1671 and/or email: wocln@stuaf.umass.edu

Body Politics is an original production about women of color and body image. It explores issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, skin color, hair texture, and violence in the lives of women of color. Body Politics is a unique project which brings a diversity of women of color together to write, edit, learn, and perform. The event is on April 26th and 27th at 7pm in the Student Union Ballroom and 2pm in the Campus Center Auditorium. The show is hosted by Women of Color Leadership Network directed by Keli Stewart. It is a free event and open to the public.

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Poetry and Short Stories by Keli Stewart

Wednesday, April 23rd
7:00 p.m., August Savage Gallery

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A Memorial Tribute to
Max Roach, 1924-2007

Tuesday, March 25th 2008

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Book Party & Signing!

Contested Democracy: Freedom, Race,
and Power in American History
by Manisha Sinha

Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

(click here for more info)

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14th ANNUAL W.E.B. DU BOIS LECTURE
Arnold Rampersad

Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 4:30 p.m., Lower Level, Library

Arnold Rampersad, author of acclaimed works on W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Ralph Ellison, will be giving the 14th annual W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture this year. The title of his talk is "W.E.B. Du Bois and Ralph Ellison."

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