News

Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, was honored with the 2026 Paul Robeson and Zora Neale Hurston Celebrated Elder Award from the National Council for Black Studies. This award was given during the awards ceremony for the NCBS annual conference in March. Professor Shabazz has served previously as the President of NCBS and served as treasurer most recently. 

Recentering Liberia: Possibilities, Innovation, and Development in the 21st Century
From April 23-25, 2026, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, along with co-sponsorship support from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Conference Fund and the Five College Symposium Fund, will be hosting the 57^th Annual Conference of the Liberian Studies Association here at UMass Amherst.  

Keynote Speaker, Dr. Layli Maparyan, 16th President, University of Liberia

Luncheon Plenary Speaker, Dr. Ishmael N. Annang, Assistant Professor, Mount Holyoke College

Paul Michael Thomson, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Du Bois Department whose new play Pot Girls was very well received in Chicago. Please see the update below, including a link to an article about the play!

Pot Girls by Paul Michael Thomson, directed by Ayanna Bria Bakari recently had a sold-out, extended run at The Story Theatre in Chicago. Kerry Reid of the Chicago Reader called it a "glorious and heady world-premiere" and "simply one of the best shows I've seen so far this year." Check out this article about Pot Girls in American Theatre Magazine, featuring an interview with Thomson and Bakari.

Ph. D. Candidate Marcus Smith's digital humanities project and nascent organization, Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network (BGHPN), is featured in the newly released Fall issue of Historic New England Magazine, published this morning. In her article, “Learning to See the Layers: Centering Marginalized Stories in Historic Preservation,” Sarah Marsom highlights BGHPN alongside Latinos in Heritage Preservation and Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation as national networks working to broaden the narratives represented within the preservation field. The feature also

The UMass Office of Equity and Inclusion is proud to announce the Professor John H. Bracey Jr. Leadership Awards, to be presented to three outstanding members of the UMass Amherst community at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Brunch on January 20, 2026. Nominations will be accepted until December 15, 2025.

The Professor John H. Bracey Jr. Awards (formerly the Chancellor’s Leadership Awards) honor the lasting legacy and impact of an innovative scholar, mentor, community member, and activist. These awards are crafted with the intention to recognize contributions by University students

Job Description

The W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 20^th Century African American History, with a focus on Black Women. A subfield examining Black Feminisms or Gender and Sexuality would also be of interest. 

AFROAM Spring 2026 Course Guide