Departmental News

August 23, 2021

The History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement   ENROLL   About this course:  The objective of this course is to examine the modern Civil Rights Movement. As traditionally understood, this period began with the May 17, 1954, "Brown vs. Board of Education” Supreme Court decision and ended with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This course will expand this time frame and seek to place this movement in the context of global developments and the broad sweep of United States History. Assigned readings consist of historical and autobiographical texts. Lectures will contextualize the readings by placing…

January 19, 2021

By Ivan Natividad| JANUARY 15, 2021 Article Link here

January 13, 2021

The Department of African American Studies at Berkeley is proud to be one of 16 college and university recipients of the Andrew A. Mellon Foundation's new Just Futures grant, which will support our multidisciplinary, humanities-led teams working to address racial inequality. Learn more [press release below]   UC Berkeley’s Department of African American Studies Awarded $2.8 Million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation   The Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley is excited to announce that we have been selected as one of sixteen recipients of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures grant. This…

December 1, 2020

By Ivan Natividad | DECEMBER 1, 2020 UC Berkeley African American Studies professor Nikki Jones has won the 2020 Michael J. Hindelang Award. The national honor given by the American Society of Criminology (ASC), recognizes a book published within the past three years that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology. Jones recently received the award for her book The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption. Through the use of ethnographic interviews with inner-city police officers and recordings of police encounters collected by and alongside law enforcement, the book delves into the reasons why violence…

December 1, 2020

Recognizing the Past, Repairing the Present, Building the Future Inaugural Commemoration of the European Day for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the European Parliament Virtual Event on the Histories and Legacies of the Transatlantic Trade and Enslavement of Africans and People of African Descent in Europe and the Caribbean with a Screening of the Documentary Series “Enslaved” (2020) 2 December 2020  -  INTRODUCTION 14:00 – 14:20 Welcoming remarks ·      Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Vice-President of the European Parliament ·      Charles Michel, President of the European Council (TBC) ·      Helena Dalli, European Commissioner for Equality 14:20 – 14:25 Introduction of the…

November 9, 2020

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/11/05/students-react-to-election-results/

November 5, 2020

Ula Taylor, chair and professor of African American studies and African Diasporas studies “Let me be blunt. The Electoral College needs to go! Although many so-called informed persons continue to peddle that the Electoral College was a way to ensure that small states (for example, Delaware) were not swallowed up by larger states (for example, Virginia), it was actually more about whether or not, or how to count, enslaved Black people. With the magical powers of white supremacy, the enslaved were counted as three-fifths of a person, which boosted the electoral votes of slavocracy. All of the early presidents, most noteworthy Thomas Jefferson, won their elections via Black bodies who were not legally perceived as fully human. I am not a political scientist, but there has to be a way to make the popular vote have more meaning in the modern day presidential election. How we move forward as a nation depends upon how much we value one person, one vote. It is only then that the empowering possibilities of a real democracy can happen.”

October 28, 2020

Racial unrest and violence between armed white militias and Black Lives Matter protestors. Millions of acres burned in California wildfires. The appointment of a new Supreme Court justice. A pandemic that has left more than 225,000 Americans dead and over 20 million unemployed. Presidential candidates with vastly different visions for the future.

July 15, 2020

Spotlight on Berkeley Teaching exposes first-year undergraduate students to an awesome set of classes that they may not have even imagined possible. Spotlight courses invite incoming students to take a closer look at classes that enable them to encounter different ideas and perspectives and to explore intellectual areas beyond their intended major. These courses are taught by outstanding faculty instructors who are passionate about undergraduate teaching as well as their research. Spotlight on Berkeley Teaching aims to create a first-year undergraduate experience of intellectual energy and wonder that distinguishes UC Berkeley. AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES 116 examines the origins of the African slave…

March 16, 2020