News

Our February 2026 Departmental Spotlight features Roderick Jackson, a Ph.D. student in African Diaspora Studies, interviewed by graduate student Endria Richardson.

Tell me about your work. What do you care about in the world, and how did you come to care about it?

My doctoral research examines the intersections of race, class, gender, and peri-urban space by interrogating the value of Black male labor in post-industrial Northwest Indiana. Focusing largely on Gary, Indiana—the former steel capital of the United States—I...

Our January 2026 Departmental Spotlight features our undergraduate advisor, Francisca Cázares, interviewed by graduate student Endria Richardson. Francisca also serves at the undergraduate advisor for Gender and Women's Studies.

Tell me about your work. What do you care about in the world, and how did you come to care about it?

Shortly after I graduated from Berkeley in the 90s, I returned to campus to work in my first full time career position where I advised prospective graduate students and managed admissions for the School of Education. And I...

The Department of African American Studies (AAS) is launching a new series spotlighting alumni of our Ph.D. program. In our first spotlight, AAS Project Manager Barbara Montano intreviews recent Ph.D. program alumna Adriana Green, now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in African American Studies at Princeton University.

Where are you now and what are you up to? Tell us about your postdoc.

I am in New Jersey! I was fortunate...

We are excited to announce that the Departments of African American Studies and Gender and Women's Studies at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with Adrienne Torf, Raymond O. Caldwell, and the Fountain Theater of Los Angeles, are hosting a performance of the award-winning Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience in Berkeley in February 2026. This theater piece is an intimate portrait of the late poet, UC Berkeley professor, and activist June Jordan, told largely through her own poetry, essays, memoir, and interviews. In conjunction with the production,...