News

The Legacy of Black Love and Preservation: June Jordan's Poetry for the People

November 5, 2025
Joy Wilson

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,...

Call for Papers: The 2026 St. Clair Drake Conference

April 9, 2026
Irene Denise Ross
“Walls Turned Sideways: Bridges in Black Study”

The 2026 St. Clair Drake Conference will be held on May 7th, 2026 at the David Brower Center in Downtown Berkeley. Please see our event page for more details. The conference will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the VèVè A. Clark Institute for Engaged Scholars of African American Studies.

"Walls turned sideways are bridges."

–Angela Y Davis, An Autobiography...

Departmental Spotlight: Darieck Scott

April 13, 2026
Endria Richardson

Our April 2026 Departmental Spotlight features Darieck Scott, professor in African American Studies, interviewed by graduate student Endria Richardson.

Who do you love? Writers, thinkers, artists, parents, friends—who has inspired you to be in the world the way that you are?

I’m going to answer this in terms of who has inspired me specifically as a writer and scholar. Anyone, undergrad or grad, who’s taken a class with me for the last ten years can probably guess the primary answer: Toni Morrison. I started reading...

When Home is a Photograph: Book Tour Spring 2026

March 20, 2026
When Home is a Photograph Book Tour, Spring 2026

Join Professor Leigh Raiford at an event this spring to celebrate the publication of her new book, When Home is a Photograph: Blackness and Belonging in the World from Duke University Press.

March 27th, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, in conversation with Dr. Cheryl Finley April 1st, ...

Summer 2026 Courses - Registration is open!

March 3, 2026
Francisca Cazares

Register Now!

AFRICAM 119: Language Politics in Africa's Digital Age, Instructor: Dr. David Kyeu, Session D, TWTh 10-1230, in person, CN: 15902

This course explores the intersections of media, digital platforms, and language politics in Africa, with a focus on how language shapes access, representation, and power in the public sphere. Students will analyze both traditional and digital media to examine how these spaces reinforce or challenge linguistic...

Departmental Spotlight: Roderick Jackson

February 4, 2026
Endria Richardson

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...

Harriet, Her Nelson, and the North Star Kiss

January 27, 2026
Daphne Muse

A poem by Daphne Muse.

"Harriet, Her Nelson, and the North Star Kiss" was inspired by my deeply held respect for Harriet Tubman and the endearing Kerry James Marshall’s Still Life with Wedding Portrait.

"Harriet, Her Nelson, and the North Star Kiss"

Dedicated to all who know how to embrace, treasure, and love a fierce Black woman.

Twice “married,” fierce navigator of the night sky

Harriet a descendent, from the continent

where the N’Nonminton—

Dahomean warrior women--

reigned,

sang songs of deliverance...

Departmental Spotlight: Francisca Cázares

January 15, 2026
Endria Richardson

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...

Alumni Spotlight: Cherod Johnson

January 7, 2026
Barbara Montano

Cherod Johnson is a recent alum of our Ph.D. program and current Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University in the Center for Environmental Humanities.

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

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University in the Center for Environmental Humanities, and the experience has been genuinely transformative. The position has afforded me the rare luxury to immerse myself deeply in research, teaching, and publishing. The mentorship I have received from Professor...

Alumni Spotlight: Adriana Green

December 8, 2025
Barbara Montano

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...