Archive: Barbara Montano

March 27, 2024

From the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: By Anthony Balas March 26, 2024 The University of California, Berkeley, is making a hopeful case for African American studies amid attacks on academic freedom.  Critical as they are to a healthy democracy, open conversations at public universities on race, history, and freedom are increasingly threatened by an array of attacks—from cuts to funding for humanities departments to legislation that restricts higher education institutions from incorporating topics like racial injustice into curricula.  To Nikki Jones, who is a professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, these attacks can be understood,…

March 27, 2024

From UC Berkeley’s College of Letters & Sciences:    By Emily Yang   March 27, 2024   UC Berkeley’s African American Studies (AAS) Department launched a groundbreaking project this week with a $100,000 Affirming Multivocal Humanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Banned Scholars Project is a direct response to increasing restrictions on academic freedom, particularly in the fields of critical race theory, DEI and gender studies. It was spearheaded by AAS professors Michael M. Cohen, Tianna S. Paschel and Ula Taylor; department chair Nikki Jones; and managed by staffer Barbara Montano. The Mellon Foundation, known for its…

August 17, 2023

Victoria Netanus Grubbs, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Black Studies Collaboratory and lecturer in African American Studies, recently appeared on the Matrix podcast to discuss her research on Rwandan popular music. Featuring clips from musical artists across the country, Grubbs discusses the project of diasporic music, national identity, and resistance to state projects.    Check out the interview here: https://matrix.berkeley.edu/research-article/listening-to-rwandan-popular-music-with-victoria-netanus-grubbs/