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December 5, 2013

Center for Race & Gender Thursday Forum Series presents...Bodies of Difference and Desire Meditations on Mammy: Asexuality and BlacknessIanna Hawkins Owen, African Diaspora StudiesThe Asexual Visibility and Education Network functions simultaneously as a message board based community and as an advocacy organization advancing the claim that asexuals are “just like everybody else.” In this context, black asexuals on AVEN have created threads/posts seeking out other black asexual users. Non-POC responses in these threads have employed various color-blind strategies that reveal the trouble the black asexual poses to the campaign of fusing “asexual” with “everybody else.” After nearly ten years of…

November 22, 2013

Inaugural lecture delivered upon appointment to the chair of Extraordinary Professor of History of the Dutch Slavery and its Legacy at the University of Amsterdam on October 5th , 2012 Living History: The Legacy of Slavery in the Netherlands

October 31, 2013

Come out and meet a best selling author and award winning actor Hill Harper as he signs and talks about his latest book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother. This powerful book has messages of inspiration and hope for us all. Come out, get your book signed, talk with the author and be a part of this historic Bay Area event! brought to you by UNITED MEN OF ALLEN TEMPLE

October 30, 2013

Comic book characters aren't exactly known for their racial diversity, but now a group of self-proclaimed black girl geeks are trying to change that. Guest Host Celeste Headlee speaks to Grace Gipson, a blogger for Black Girl Nerds, about the lack of black representation in geek culture. Off the top of your head, how many black female comic book characters can you name?  Well, now a number of self-proclaimed black girl nerds who grew up reading comic books with characters that looked pretty much nothing like them are now joining forces to bring some diversity to so-called geek culture. The…

October 30, 2013

Nell Painter will present the Jefferson lecture on November 7, 2013, entitled: "Why White People Are Called 'Caucasian' (Illustrated)." The lecture is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. About Nell Painter Nell Painter is currently a painter (formerly known as the historian Nell Irvin Painter). She is the author of The History of White People and six other books and is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, among many others, she is a former president of the Organization of American Historians…

September 26, 2013

The new book by UC Berkeley African American Studies Lecturer Dr. Rickey Vincent is coming out on October 1st.   (It is available on amazon.com now, from Lawrence Hill Books) “PARTY MUSIC: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers Band and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music” is a groundbreaking first hand account of the Black Panther Party’s foray into Rhythm and Blues, as well as an analytical treatment of the intersection between Soul Music and Black Consciousness.   Here is an interview/discussion of the book with Davey D on KPFA: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/95603   PARTY MUSIC reviews   From Publishers Weekly: Party Music:…

September 13, 2013

It is with great pleasure that we share with you that Aya de Leon has been appointed as a Continuing Lecturer in African American Studies.  Join us in congratulating Aya on this accomplishment.

March 26, 2013

By Cathy Cockrell, NewsCenter | March 26, 2013 BERKELEY — There’s the joke about a fast-food-chain hire hunting high and low for something referred to in the employee manual as a “spatula.” And the one about paying Western Union $9 to send Michelle Obama $5 for her husband’s election campaign. As Edwin Okong’o knows firsthand, the immigrant experience includes “a lot of suffering,” but it’s also “a gold mine” for humor. Put fellow Africans “through the journey” again — whether as featured funnyman on the Africa Channel’s “Africa Laughs,” or as the night’s entertainment at an African-immigrant community event —…

March 12, 2013

By Sean Wagner-McGough | Staff It’s not everyday Isiah Thomas and Jason Kidd are in the same room. It happened on Sunday night though, right here at Cal. In Memorial Stadium, the two NBA greats lent their voices in an effort to raise money for the African American Studies department and the campus for the Renaissance Night Gala. While the two stars were tasked to speaking to the guests at the Gala, the two were made available to a shockingly small media gathering. Both their messages were simple throughout the gala: value your education. “We as athletes, celebrities, role-models —…

February 20, 2013

Hip Hop artist Jinho "Piper" Ferreira plays 15 characters that show the intersections between law enforcement, the media, and the Black community.