2024-2025 New Directions Lecture Series

Thursday, March 20, 2025
Devlin 101, 4:30 pm
Dr. Giselle Anatol, University of Kansas
"Soucouyants and Sleep Paralysis: How Folklore and Fiction Help Us Understand Illness."

2024-2025 New Directions Lecture Series

Thursday, February 6, 2025
Devlin 101, 4:30 pm
Dr. Tyesha Maddox, Fordham University
A Home Away from Home: Early 20th Century Caribbean Immigration to the United States

AADS is Accepting Applications for its 2025/2026 Dissertation Fellowship Competition - EXTENDED DEADLINE JANUARY 21, 2025

Boston College's African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) is accepting applications for its dissertation fellowship competition. This 2025/2026 fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend; access to highly subsidized health insurance through Boston College; a $1,500 research budget; a $3,000 moving expense allotment, and a fully equipped, shared office. The fellow must remain in residence for the 9-month academic year, deliver one research presentation, and teach one seminar course. The fellow will also receive compensation for teaching the course. The fellow is expected to attend AADS lectures and works-in-progress sessions and generally be a part of the intellectual life of the program. Submit all application materials, including letters of recommendation by Tuesday, 21 January 2025 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) via Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/159412

Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship

The Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship will provide the successful recipients with up to $3000 for research-related expenses. The award can be used for either an Independent Research Project under a faculty member's supervision or a Summer Research Project that focuses on African or African Diaspora Communities. Apply here.

A world of possibilities

Program Director Lorelle Semley talks about African and African Diaspora Studies.

Global Black French Studies across Time and Space: The Formation and Future of the Field

Global Black French Studies across Time and Space: The Formation and Future of the Field is a 3-day event that will take place at Boston College from October 3-5, 2024. You can view the event details and register here.

Assistant Professor in African and African Diaspora Studies

Boston College’s African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) invites applications for a tenure-track core faculty position to begin in August 2025. This position will be a joint appointment between AADS and a cooperating department. While this search is an open field one, we are particularly interested in scholars working in Haitian Studies or STEM in African and African Diaspora Studies. To learn more about the position and apply, please visit Interfolio. 

Hidden Histories: Racial Injustice at St. Elizabeths Mental Hospital

In a podcast marking the 75th anniversary of the National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH Director Joshua Gordon talks with Professor of History Martin Summers about his award-winning book Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Race and Mental Illness in the Nation's Capital. Listen

Voices of Imani Gospel Choir presents..."Melodies from Heaven," Spring 2024 Concert - April 20, Cabaret Room, Vanderslice Hall at 6:00 pm.

Professor Shawn McGuffey Wins SDAAG Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Professor Shawn McGuffey for winning the Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers' Best Paper Award! The paper, titled A Kentucky State of Mind: bell hooks' Feminist Geography of Subjectivity, examines the significance of the location of Kentucky to bell hooks' Black feminist theory through the analysis of her memoir, poetry, and other literary works. You can read the paper here.

Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship

The Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship will provide the successful recipients up to $3000 toward research-related expenses. The successful recipients can use the award for either an Independent Research Project under the supervision of a faculty member or for a Summer Research Project that focuses on African or African Diaspora Communities. Apply here.

AADS New Directions Lecture by Dr. J.T. Roane

Please join us in person in Devlin Hall 101.

AADS is Accepting Applications for its 2024/2025 Dissertation Fellowship Competition

Boston College's African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) is accepting applications for its dissertation fellowship competition. This 2024/2025 fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend; access to highly subsidized health insurance through Boston College; a $1,500 research budget; a $3,000 moving expense allotment, and a fully equipped, shared office. The fellow must remain in residence for the 9-month academic year, deliver one research presentation, and teach one seminar course. The fellow will also receive compensation for teaching the course. The fellow is expected to attend AADS lectures and works-in-progress sessions and generally be a part of the intellectual life of the program. Submit all application materials including letters of recommendation by Wednesday, 10 January 2024 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) via Interfolio at apply.interfolio.com/131998.

Blacks in Boston Conference CALL FOR PAPERS/WORKSHOPS “Black Health and Sustainability” Saturday, 6 April 2024

The 2024 theme is designed to bring together researchers, clinicians, practitioners, activists, and service providers to discuss the most pressing problems impacting the health and well-being of Black Bostonians. The conference organizers encourage submissions from scholars (graduate students are welcome), clinicians, practitioners, community activists, and others. We also encourage submissions of individual papers as well as complete panels and workshops. All proposals must be submitted by Monday, November 13th, at 11:59 pm EST via apply.interfolio.com/131933

Voices of Imani Gospel Choir presents..."Glorius", Spring 2023 Concert - April 22, Cabaret Room, Vanderslice Hall at 6:30 pm.

The African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) congratulates Maria Christie Louis, the 2023 Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Recipient!

AADS would also like to extend congratulation to this year's finalists: Srina Lacet, Osasenga Owens, Ashley-Rae Stewart and Kaylee Arzu.

Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College

Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College, is a virtual tour and story bank created by Dr. Rhonda Frederick in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Boston College’s African & African Diaspora Studies Program. This interactive tour allows online and mobile users to discover and explore black BC’s complex history on campus, in Boston, and in the nation. It mines anecdotal and informal resources as well as BC archives to commemorate the presence and contributions of black BC, and to document how this community participates in Boston’s black communities. The site is also a resource for BC students, faculty, staff, alums, and scholars who conduct research on race.  Access the site here.

New AADS Faculty, 2022-2023

Meet two of our new AADS faculty and hear why they chose their respective fields and what they are working on at Boston College this year. Latrica Best is an Associate Professor of Sociology and African and African Diaspora Studies. Jovonna Jones is an Assistant Professor of English and African and African Diaspora Studies. Read more here.

AADS is Accepting Applications for its 2023/2024 Dissertation Fellowship Competition

Boston College's African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) is accepting applications for its dissertation fellowship competition. This 2023/2024 fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend; access to highly subsidized health insurance through Boston College; a $1,500 research budget; a $3,000 moving expense allotment, and a fully equipped, shared office. The fellow must remain in residence for the 9-month academic year, deliver one research presentation, and teach one seminar course. The fellow will also receive compensation for teaching the course. The fellow is expected to attend AADS lectures and works-in-progress sessions and generally be a part of the intellectual life of the program. Submit all application materials including letters of recommendation by Tuesday, 10 January 2023 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) via Interfolio at apply.interfolio.com/116778.

AADS New Directions Lecture by Dr. Rhonda Frederick

Please join us in person in Devlin Hall 101.

AADS New Directions Lecture by Dr. Saida Grundy

Please join us in person in Devlin Hall 101.

Professor Latrica Best Joining Sociology Department and AADS in Fall of 2022

Dr. Latrica Best will join the Department of Sociology at Boston College as an Associate Professor in Fall of 2022, with a joint appointment in the African and African Diaspora Studies Program. Dr. Best’s expertise is in the area of race and gender differences in population health across the life course. Her recent work explores the impact of psychosocial factors in late-life chronic disease experience in both the United States and in Ghana. She also conducts research examining possible methodological issues in studying genetic and biological markers in social science surveys. Her research is published in a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals. We look forward to welcoming Dr. Best to BC!

Assistant Professor of Race and Communication

The Department of Communication and the African and African Diaspora Studies Program at Boston College invite applications for a joint tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of race and communication, to begin in Fall 2023. To learn more about the postion and apply, please visit Interfolio. 

Congratulations to Professor Rhonda Frederick on her latest publication!

Professor C. Shawn McGuffey Wins Award from SSSP and AWP

Dr. C. Shawn McGuffey is the recipient of the 2022 Society for the Study of Social Problems’ Arlene Kaplan Daniels Award for the best article on women and social justice. He is also the 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. He is receiving both awards for his article “Rape Appraisals: Class Mobility, Social Geography, and Sexual Morality Tales in Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda”, published in the Journal of Black Psychology. Congratulations Dr. McGuffey!  

Prof. C Shawn McGuffey appointed Kenan Distinguished Visiting Professor

Dr. C. Shawn McGuffey has been appointed the Kenan Distinguished Visiting Professor at his alma mater, Transylvania University. He'll be spending the spring 2023 semester there. Congratulations Dr. McGuffey!

Allison Curseen named Cooney Family Assistant Professor

Allison Curseen, a faculty member in the English Department and African and African Diaspora Studies Program specializing in African American and 19th-century American literature and culture, has been appointed Cooney Family Assistant Professor. In her teaching, Curseen—whose interests include performance and performance studies, child studies, and theories of fugitivity and unruliness—brings a commitment to interdisciplinary work in performance studies, theater, media, and African American artistic traditions. Read more

"An important place in the intellectual and social landscape"

Blacks in Boston conference commemorates a half-century of Black Studies at Boston College. Delayed by the pandemic, the 50-year commemoration was the theme for the return of Blacks in Boston, a conference series conceived by Amanda V. Houston—who served as Black Studies Program director from 1981-1993—to explore social, political, economic, and other matters of interest to Boston’s black communities. Saturday’s event was the first Blacks in Boston conference since 2018. Read more

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu Awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize

AADS is happy to announce that our 2012-2013 Dissertation Fellow Siphiwe Ndlvou was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize. First awarded in 2013, the Windham Campbell Prize, which is described on the organization’s website as a “global English-language award that calls attention to literary achievement and provides writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns,” is one of literature’s most prestigious awards. The Prize is administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, is an author whose interconnected novels—The Theory of Flight (2021) and The History of Man (2022)—explore colonialism in a Southern African country. Read more

To honor fifty years of Black Studies at Boston College, AADS's Blacks in Boston Conference will blend a celebration of our anniversary with a larger conversation about the history, present, and future of the field.

The conference is free and open to the public. The deadline to register is April, 4th, 2022. Read more about the conference and register. 

Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship

The Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship will provide the successful recipients up to $3000 toward research-related expenses. The successful recipients can use the award for either an Independent Research Project under the supervision of a faculty member or for a Summer Research Project that focuses on African or African Diaspora Communities. Apply here.

MLK Jr. Internship Grant for Unpaid Internships

The Dr. MLK, Jr. internship grant will be offered to a sophomore or junior who embodies the philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and advances nonviolent initiatives in civil and equal rights, education, economic and social justice.  This summer internship can be done  in the US or abroad.  The committee will award one $3,500 grant for unpaid internships. Apply here.

Over two days at Boston College, the award-winning poet Claudia Rankine shared an intimate look at the experience of racism.

Claudia Rankine, one of America’s premier poets and thinkers on race and interiority, met with Boston College students, faculty, and staff during a two-day residency earlier this month. Read more

Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship winner Kudzai Kapurura ’23 aims to uplift others with her words and actions

Two years ago, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Banquet, Kudzai Kapurura ’23 delivered a speech on a concept she’s been thinking about ever since: “Lift as you climb.” She returned to the theme at this year’s banquet, where she was named the winner of the prestigious award. Kudzai is majoring in Economics and minoring in AADS at Boston College. Read more

AADS New Directions Lecture by Dr. Meredith Clark

Please join us in person in Fulton Hall 511 or zoom in.

Claudia Rankine @ BC 2-Day Residency: Artist-Meets-Critic

Please join Profs. Rhonda Frederick (ENGL/AADS) and C. Shawn McGuffey (SOCY/AADS) as they discuss how race is done, undone, and reimagined in Citizen: An American Lyric with award winning and New York Times best-selling author, Claudia Rankine. Devlin 101 on 03/03/2022 at 7 pm

AADS is Accepting Applications for its 2022/2023 Dissertation Fellowship Competition

Boston College's African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) is accepting applications for dissertation fellowship competition. This 2022/2023 fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend; access to highly subsidized health insurance through Boston College; a $1,500 research budget; a $3,000 moving expense allotment, and a fully equipped, shared office. The fellow must remain in residence for the 9-month academic year, deliver one public lecture, and teach one seminar course. The fellow will also receive compensation for teaching the course. The fellow is expected to attend AADS lectures and works-in-progress sessions and generally be a part of the intellectual life of the program. Submit all application materials including letters of recommendation by Monday, 10 January 2022 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) via Interfolio at apply.interfolio.com/96035.

Senior Faculty Search in AADS

Associate or Full Professor in African Diaspora Studies. Boston College's African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) invites applications from senior scholars for a tenured core faculty position to begin in August 2022. This is an open field search and the position will be a joint appointment with another cooperating department.  As the AADS Program continues to grow, we envision the successful candidate taking on a leadership role. The AADS Program has six core faculty members and twelve affiliate faculty members in the fields of Art History, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, and Theology. The Program also hopes to add to our core and affiliate faculty through tenure-track faculty searches in Communication, English, and History in 2021-2022. To learn more about the postion and apply, please visit Interfolio. 

Prof. Martin Summers awarded the Cheiron Book Prize for his book, Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions

We are very pleased to announce that  Prof. Martin Summers's book, Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions, has been awarded this year's Cheiron Book Prize for an outstanding monograph in the history of the social/behavioral/human sciences. The formal presentation of the book award took place at the annual meeting of Cheiron, 15-17 June 2021.

Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Race and Mental Illness in the Nation's Capital (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Virgin Mary, social justice icon

For all her connections to divine power, Mary has a lot in common with people who often get overlooked. Assistant Professor of Theology Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones, whose scholarship focuses on Mariology, comments: Associated Press via America. 

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones is an assistant professor in the Theology Department and the African & African Diapsora Studies Program of Boston College.

Professor Shawn McGuffey Receives Honorable Mention

Dr. C. Shawn McGuffey's article "Intersectionality, Cognition, Disclosure and Black LGBT Views on Civil Rights and Marriage Equality: Is Gay the New Black?" has been awarded an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award from the Race, Gender, and Class section of the American Sociological Association. Congrats Dr. McGuffey!

What's Next?: Violence, Police Reform, and Community Healing

Access the zoom login information here.

MLK Scholarship winner makes space for other voices

Meet this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship winner: Latifat Odetunde '22, a sociology and African and African Diaspora Studies major who, among other activities, created a digital platform for Black, Muslim perspectives. Read more

Celebrating Black History Month: Cooking Demonstration and Collaboration between BC's Chef Brad and Prof. Karen Miller

In February 2021, BC Dining collaborated with Professor Karen Miller for a virtual cooking demonstration to learn more about African American Foodways in celebration of Black History Month. In this episode, Chef Brad made Poulet Yassa, a delicious chicken dish!

Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) in the Age of COVID-19 .

This New Directions in African & African Diaspora Studies panel will take a deep dive into the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped activism in the Movement for Black Lives locally, nationally, and internationally. By focusing on the intersection of M4BL and the viral pandemic, the discussion will illuminate both how activism must adapt to the current moment and what this adaptation means for the well being of people of African descent in the U.S. and abroad. Join the panel via zoom here.

Haitian Politics and Dreams For My Father

The crisis in Haiti. Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, and African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS), Régine Jean-Charles, a Haitian American scholar, writes on Haitian president Jovenel Moïse’s refusal to step down in an op-ed for Ms. Magazine.

AADS Open House - Wednesday, 10 February 2021 @ 4:30 pm

Black History Month Opening Celebration - Guest Speaker Dr. Régine Jean-Charles

Join the BAIC to celebrate Black History Month. This year's theme is "Stronger Together, Celebrating Black Joy" and AADS Associate Professor, Dr. Régine Jean Charles will deliver the keynote address. 

Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels featured by the Fowler Museum at UCLA

The Fowler Museum at UCLA featured Kyrah Malika Daniels in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the devastating Haiti earthquake. She and Curatorial and Research Associate of Haitian Arts, Katherine Smith, discussed a beaded tapestry in UCLA's collection about that same event, by Evelyn Alcide.

IMAGE: https://ucla.box.com/s/nx4pjoo6tmv2qzgsg8yzs1d4f9rb9l89

CAPTION: Evelyne Alcide (b. 1969, Port-au-Prince, Haiti); Séisme (Earthquake), 2010; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X2010.17.4; Museum Purchase, the Jerome L. Joss Endowment Fund

 

Kyrah Malika Daniels, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Art History, African & African Diaspora Studies, and Theology at Boston College. Her research interests include Africana religions, sacred arts, material culture, and ritual healing traditions. Daniels was awarded a Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art for 2019-20. She is currently completing her first book, Art of the Healing Gods, which examines sacred art objects used in healing ceremonies to treat spiritual illnesses in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following the Haitian earthquake of 2010, she worked in St. Raphael, Haiti, with Lakou Solèy Academic and Cultural Arts Center, a grassroots organization that develops arts-based pedagogy. Daniels currently serves as Co-Vice President for KOSANBA, the Scholarly Association for the Study of Haitian Vodou.

 

 

What' s Next?: Race, Protest, and Justice after the Election.

Join AADS and the Irish Studies Program for the post election webinar What's Next?: Race, Protest, & Justice After the Election. Panelists include: Reuel Rogers, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University; Malia Lazu, Social Justice Leader, Entrepreneur and Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management; Matt O'Malley, City Councillor, District 6, City of Boston. Guest speakers will discuss the consequences of the election for racial and other social justice issues at both the national and local levels. BC Seniors Angelina Vallejo and Czar Sepe will moderate the panel. 

Amy Coney Barrett’s ‘Happy Go Lucky’ Haitian Children and the White Savior Narrative

Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and French Régine Jean-Charles in a piece for MsMagazine blog comments on the clip of Judge Amy Coney Barrett describing her children and how we see Haiti. In her article entitled "Amy Coney Barrett's 'Happy Go Lucky' Haitian Children and the White Savior Narrative," Dr. Jean-Charles points out that Barrett's Black adopted children were only explained by "the sum of their trauma".  These descriptions troubled Dr. Jean-Charles, who is a feminist, a mother and a woman of Haitian descent. You can read the blog here.

BLM at BC: Formation and Justice in Higher Education

Boston College's Forum on Racial Justice in America held its second event on October 15, 2020. Forum Direcotor and BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau moderated a panel "BLM at BC: Formation and Justice in Higher Education," which featured African and African Diaspora Studies Program Director C. Shawn McGuffey, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and AADS Régine Jean-Charles and Professor of History and AADS Martin Summers. You can view the panel discussion here.

How Our Healthcare System Fails Black Americans

The Boston College Magazine featured four distinguished faculty members who explored how race and racism affected everything in the United States of America. Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies Martin Summers provided a reflection entitled How Our Healthcare System Fails Black Americans.  Dr. Summers noted "as senator Kamala Harris declared in her acceptance speech for the Democractic vice-presidential nomination, we can no longer ignore the role that structural racism plays in the poor health outcomes for African Americans, especially in the current pandemic. This is a structural racism 400 years in the making that will only be rooted out by bold action in all sectors of America society". 

Teaching Amid Two Pandemics

Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and French Regine Jean-Charles reflects on adjusting her teaching for a semester in which the nation grapples with the challenges of both COVID-19 and systemic racism in a piece for Boston Globe "Ideas". 

Blackness and Anti-Blackness in American Public Life

Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Communication Anjali Vats, will participate in a joint book talk to chart cultural histories of Blackness through law, politics, and media. 

Anjali Vats' most recent publication is The Color of Creatorship: Intellectual  Property, Race, and the Making of Americans (2020), out now with Stanford University Press.

AADS and the New Semester: A Welcome

Dear beloved African & African Diaspora Studies and the Boston College community: As I go into my third year as Director of African & African Diaspora Studies, I am shook by this most challenging of welcomes for the 2020 academic year.  Normally, the pulse of the new semester enlivens me as new students and colleagues grace our campus with fresh energy, and returning faces provide familiar comforts.  The spirit and determination of AADS’ faculty, staff, and students have always been a part of the exhilarating thrill of the new semester, as I can count on my AADS community for intellectual innovations, activist and artistic engagements, and emotional and spiritual support.  Every year, I look forward to this new beginning.

This new year, though, is obviously different.  Thus, this welcome must meet you differently.  While AADS faculty and staff will continue our legacy of excellence in teaching, research, and programming, we must do so at the intersection of a new viral pandemic and a much too familiar epidemic of racialized state sanctioned violence; both of which disproportionately affect and kill Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people.  With this in mind, AADS is determined to meet you and the BC community at this crucial crossroads.  And the empowering words of two of our foremothers, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Toni Morrison, offer us roadmaps for how to navigate this hazardous terrain.

Although video recordings of police officers and vigilantes shooting and murdering Black people like Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake have replaced community hangings and lynching postcards, anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells’ historic research reminds us that public and state sanctioned death of Black people is a grotesquely familiar U.S. story.  Its horrors need no embellishment, as “it makes its own way.”  As a journalist, educator, and activist Ida B. Wells provided a blueprint for addressing violence against people of African descent – document, analyze, educate, and fervently and consistently resist oppression.  AADS is committed to these pillars of scholarly activism.

The pandemic, however, has made organizing for justice more challenging, but not impossible.  AADS will do its part to hold virtual spaces so that we can nurture the conditions that allow our community members to envision and make a world free of anti-Black violence, even as we traverse the racist and deadly consequences of this viral pandemic. As such, we have dedicated this year’s New Directions series to “Arts, Activism, and the Movement for Black Lives in the age of COVID – 19.”  Like Wells-Barnett, we will ask bold questions and suggest daring solutions, as "[t]here must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice, if we only know how to find it."

One place I aim to find a remedy is by participating in the upcoming #ScholarStrike on September 8th and 9th.  To honor this national demonstration of solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, I will not be conducting business as usual on these days.  I will be unavailable to students, faculty and administrators.  I will, though, be joining and streaming in for the national #ScholarStrike teach-in.  If you are inclined and able to participate, I invite you to join in and participate in this virtual conversation and act of civil disobedience.

And for many of us caught in the cross-hairs of systemic racism, state violence, and the global pandemic, the Movement for Black Lives is not just intellectual – it is, indeed, embodied and personal.  Like many people of African descent, I, too, have experienced police brutality.  And COVID – 19 has also had a devasting impact on my family; with five members surviving the brutal infection and one succumbing and transitioning to an ancestor.  Thus, while we make space for academic study and social justice, we must also remember to take good care of our hearts, spirits, and minds.  Make time to laugh, scream, sing, pray, meditate, and commune with nature.  We must take time to love our flesh and our whole selves, “for this is the prize.” (Toni Morrison).

If you are having trouble, please reach out to a mental health professional. BC Counseling Services is a resource and students can download WellTrack, a self-help app for students to address stress, anxiety, and depression.  If you aren’t comfortable with BC services you can also try Good Therapy to help find a local therapist.  Other helpful therapeutic networks include:  Therapy for Black Girls, Therapy in Color, and National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN).

In closing, while this is an unconventional welcome, I do look forward to working with you, AADS, and our broader BC family as we create an intellectual, civic, and justice minded community.  And in doing so I also look forward to us celebrating the spirit of the late John Lewis by getting into some “good trouble."

With love and solidarity…

C. Shawn McGuffey, Ph.D.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Director of African & African Diaspora Studies

Associate Professor of Sociology

Boston College

AADS and the New Semester: A Welcome

Dear beloved African & African Diaspora Studies and the Boston College community:

As I go into my third year as Director of African & African Diaspora Studies, I am shook by this most challenging of welcomes for the 2020 academic year.  Normally, the pulse of the new semester enlivens me as new students and colleagues grace our campus with fresh energy, and returning faces provide familiar comforts.  The spirit and determination of AADS’ faculty, staff, and students have always been a part of the exhilarating thrill of the new semester, as I can count on my AADS community for intellectual innovations, activist and artistic engagements, and emotional and spiritual support.  Every year, I look forward to this new beginning.

This new year, though, is obviously different.  Thus, this welcome must meet you differently.  While AADS faculty and staff will continue our legacy of excellence in teaching, research, and programming, we must do so at the intersection of a new viral pandemic and a much too familiar epidemic of racialized state sanctioned violence; both of which disproportionately affect and kill Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people.  With this in mind, AADS is determined to meet you and the BC community at this crucial crossroads.  And the empowering words of two of our foremothers, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Toni Morrison, offer us roadmaps for how to navigate this hazardous terrain.

Although video recordings of police officers and vigilantes shooting and murdering Black people like Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake have replaced community hangings and lynching postcards, anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells’ historic research reminds us that public and state sanctioned death of Black people is a grotesquely familiar U.S. story.  Its horrors need no embellishment, as “it makes its own way.”  As a journalist, educator, and activist Ida B. Wells provided a blueprint for addressing violence against people of African descent – document, analyze, educate, and fervently and consistently resist oppression.  AADS is committed to these pillars of scholarly activism.

The pandemic, however, has made organizing for justice more challenging, but not impossible.  AADS will do its part to hold virtual spaces so that we can nurture the conditions that allow our community members to envision and make a world free of anti-Black violence, even as we traverse the racist and deadly consequences of this viral pandemic. As such, we have dedicated this year’s New Directions series to “Arts, Activism, and the Movement for Black Lives in the age of COVID – 19.”  Like Wells-Barnett, we will ask bold questions and suggest daring solutions, as "[t]here must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice, if we only know how to find it."

One place I aim to find a remedy is by participating in the upcoming #ScholarStrike on September 8th and 9th.  To honor this national demonstration of solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, I will not be conducting business as usual on these days.  I will be unavailable to students, faculty and administrators.  I will, though, be joining and streaming in for the national #ScholarStrike teach-in.  If you are inclined and able to participate, I invite you to join in and participate in this virtual conversation and act of civil disobedience.

And for many of us caught in the cross-hairs of systemic racism, state violence, and the global pandemic, the Movement for Black Lives is not just intellectual – it is, indeed, embodied and personal.  Like many people of African descent, I, too, have experienced police brutality.  And COVID – 19 has also had a devasting impact on my family; with five members surviving the brutal infection and one succumbing and transitioning to an ancestor.  Thus, while we make space for academic study and social justice, we must also remember to take good care of our hearts, spirits, and minds.  Make time to laugh, scream, sing, pray, meditate, and commune with nature.  We must take time to love our flesh and our whole selves, “for this is the prize.” (Toni Morrison).

If you are having trouble, please reach out to a mental health professional. BC Counseling Services is a resource and students can download WellTrack, a self-help app for students to address stress, anxiety, and depression.  If you aren’t comfortable with BC services you can also try Good Therapy to help find a local therapist.  Other helpful therapeutic networks include:  Therapy for Black Girls, Therapy in Color, and National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN).

In closing, while this is an unconventional welcome, I do look forward to working with you, AADS, and our broader BC family as we create an intellectual, civic, and justice minded community.  And in doing so I also look forward to us celebrating the spirit of the late John Lewis by getting into some “good trouble."

With love and solidarity…

C. Shawn McGuffey, Ph.D.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Director of African & African Diaspora Studies

Associate Professor of Sociology

Boston College

Book: Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Race and Mental Illness in the Nation's Capital, by Martin Summers

Dr. Summers’ most recent book, Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Race and Mental Illness in the Nation’s Capital, is a social and cultural history of medicine which focuses on African American patients at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, a federal mental institution in Washington, D.C., from its founding in 1855 to the 1980s. It charts the history of Saint Elizabeths from its founding to the late-1980s, when the hospital's mission and capabilities changed as a result of deinstitutionalization, and its transfer from the federal government to the District of Columbia.

The book argues that assumptions about the existence of distinctive black and white psyches shaped the therapeutic and diagnostic regimes in the hospital and left a legacy of poor treatment of African American patients, even after psychiatrists had begun to reject racialist conceptions of the psyche. Yet black patients and their communities asserted their own agency and exhibited a "rights consciousness" in large and small ways, from agitating for more equal treatment to attempting to manage the therapeutic experience.

Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Race and Mental Illness in the Nation’s Capital (Oxford University Press, 2019).

AADS Response to Black Death, Anti-Blackness, and Political Protest: An Open Letter to Our Students and Communities

The African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) program at Boston College has been combating racism and fighting for the rights of all people for nearly half a century. Our 50th anniversary celebrations attest to various victories and changes over the decades. However, the fact remains that AADS was founded in the wake of racial protest during the 1960s and shaped over the years (including the most recent years) by similar activist movements. We understand the connections between the protests that have made AADS possible and the protests taking place across the nation. The effects of anti-Black racism are many, and AADS is determined to hold the university, our state, and our country accountable for these generational offenses. Read the rest of AADS's statement here.

Alhassan Wins National Women's Studies Association/University of Illnois Press First Book Prize

AADS is happy to announce that our 2018-2019 Dissertation Fellow Shamara Wyllie Alhassan was selected as the winner of the National Women's Studies Association/University of Illinois Press (NWSA/UIP) 2019 First Book Prize for her manuscript, Re-Membering the Maternal Goddess: Rastafari Women’s Intellectual History and Activism in the Pan-African World. Alhassan will be formally recognized in mid-November at the NWSA's conference in Atlanta, GA.

AADS is Accepting Applications for its 2020/2021 Dissertation Fellowship Competition

Boston College’s African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) is accepting applications for dissertation fellowship competition. This 2020/2021 fellowship includes a $30,000 stipend; access to highly subsidized health insurance through Boston College; a $1,500 research budget; a $3,000 moving expense allotment, and a fully equipped, shared office. The fellow must remain in residence for the 9-month academic year, deliver one public lecture, and teach one seminar course. The fellow will also be compensated for teaching the course with a taxable service stipend. Submit all application materials – including letters of recommendation – by Wednesday, 8 January 2020 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) via Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/69760.

AADS Plans 50th Anniversary Celebration

"When [Black Studies] first started, it was very much focused on getting black students to BC and making sure that when they were here, that they had the resources to graduate from BC," AADS professor Rhonda Frederick said. "They had courses, they had faculty, but it was more of a student support system." It wasn't until Cynthia Young on the Heights arrived in 2006 that the program grew into its current, academics-oriented form. Hoping to spread the news of the program’s anniversary across campus, the AADS faculty has prepared a three-stage celebration.

Read more on The Heights.

Ndlovu Wins Barry Ronge Fiction Prize

AADS is happy to announce that our 2012-2013 Dissertation Fellow Siphiwe Ndlvou's first novel The Theory of Flight  has won the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize, part of the 2019 Sunday Times Literary Awards.  

The Barry Ronge Fiction Prize is considered the most prestigious accolade in South Africa! To learn more about the Award read the review in The Sunday Times.

Read reviews of The Theory of Flight at the following publications: Business Day, The Sunday Times, the Johannesburgh Review of Books, and W24 online lifestyle blog.

African & African Diaspora Studies now a major

African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) will be offered as a major beginning this fall, a curriculum development that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Black Studies Program at Boston College.    

The AADS program explores the history, culture, and politics of Africans on the continent and African-descended peoples in the U.S., the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and familiarizes students with the multiplicity and diversity of the African diaspora. Through interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, the new major draws on a broad range of methodologies in English, history, sociology, philosophy, theology, communication, romance languages, and art.

"AADS majors will gain transferable skills as they learn to analyze information from multiple perspectives and to assess the pros and cons of different types of evidence," said program director C. Shawn McGuffey, an associate professor of sociology and African and African Diaspora Studies. "These skills are important as we prepare students for both an ever-changing workforce and to be knowledgeable, ethical, and civically engaged citizens of the world. It is a major that is needed now more than ever."

Read more on BC News.

"The Theory of Flight", novel by former AADS Dissertation Fellow Siphiwe Ndlovu

AADS is happy to announce that our 2012-2013 Disseration Fellow Siphiwe Ndlvou's first novel The Theory of Flight will be released by Penguin Randon House South Africa on February 19, 2019. 

As Imogen Zula Nyoni, aka Genie, lies in a coma at Mater Dei Hospital after having suffered through a long illness, her family and friends struggle to come to terms with her impending death. This is the story of Genie, who has gifts that transcend time and space. It is also the story of her forebears - Baines Tikiti, who, because of his wanderlust, changed his name and ended up walking into the Indian Ocean; his son, Livingstone Stanley Tikiti, who, during the war, took as his nom de guerre Golide Gumede and who became obsessed with flight; and Golide's wife, Elizabeth Nyoni, a country-and-western singer self-styled after Dolly Parton, blonde wig and all. With the lightest of touches, and with an overlay of magical-realist beauty, this novel sketches, through the lives of a few families and the fate of a single patch of ground, decades of national history - from colonial occupation through the freedom struggle, to the devastation wrought by the sojas, the HI virus, and The Man Himself. At turns mysterious and magical, but always honest, The Theory of Flight explores the many ways we lose those we love before they die.

Siphiwe Ndlovu is a writer, filmmaker and academic who holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, as well as master's degrees in African Studies and Film. She has published research on Saartjie Baartman and she wrote, directed and edited the award-winning short film Graffiti. Born in Zimbabwe, she currently lives and works in Johannesburg. The Theory of Flight is her first novel.

Read reviews of The Theory of Flight at the following publications: Business Day, The Sunday Times, the Johannesburgh Review of Books, and W24 online lifestyle blog.

Distinction in Theology

The Catholic Theological Society of America honored Professor of Theology M. Shawn Copeland who received the prestigious John Courtney Murray Award in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished theological achievement. Dr. Copeland is a Professor of Theology and African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) at Boston College.

Read more on BC News.

MLK Scholar

Faith-based resiliency, inner strength, and a scholarly mien characterize this year's winner of BC's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship. Anthony Malick Smith'19 is pursing a History major and an AADS Independent Major at Boston College. Please join AADS in congratulating him on his accomplishments.

Read more on BC News.

Vats named featured scholar in UM Diversity Scholars Network

Communication Assistant Professor and AADS Core Faculty, Prof. Anjali Vatsis a featured scholar in the UM Diversity Scholars Network for February 2016. Prof. Vat's teaches courses in the areas of race, rhetoric, law and media studies. Her research is focused on rhetorics of race in law and popular culture. Prof. Vats received a 2016-2017 AAUW postdoctoral fellowship. She will be spending the next academic year as Visiting Professor of Law at UC-Davis Law School.

McGuffey recipient of 2016 Kimberle Crenshaw Award

Sociology Associate Professor and AADS Core Faculty, C. Shawn McGuffey is the recipient of the 2016 Kimberle Crenshaw Outstanding Article Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. His article is entitled, "Rape and Racial Appraisals: Culture, Intersectionality and Black Women's Account of Sexual Assault." Click here for the full citation. Prof. McGuffey is also the co-recipient of the Distinguished Article Award from the Race, Gender and Class section of the American Sociological Association. 

UGBC new President elects

Congratulations to this year's UGBC President and Vice-President elect, Akosua Achampong and Christina King! Achampong, MCAS '18, is an English major with a minor in African and African Diaspora Studies.  In addition to being elected President, she is also this year's recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Scholarship.  Christina King, MCAS'18, the UGBC Vice-President elect, is a Sociology major and the recipient of the 2016 Amanda V. Houston Fellowship.

Women in Theology in Africa

Professor of Theology M. Shawn Copeland cites the role of women in the Christian faith as one of the key issues concerning theology on the African continent. She discussed what has, and should, be done to improve the role of women in the Church at a recent conference featured by Crux.com.

Prof. Jean-Charles on the French Elections and Racism.

WBUR Radio's online journal, "Cognoscenti", recently published an Op-Ed essay by Prof. Régine Jean-Charles entitled "A Victory for Macron in France but the Specter of Racism Remains."

AADS Minor wins 2017 Dr. Donald Brown Award

AADS Minor Sammie-Marie Oluyede wins the 2017 Dr. Donald Brown Award. This award recognizes a senior who has made extraordinary contributions to Boston College, and particularly to the AHANA community.

Patheos Guest post: by Prof. C. Shawn McGuffey

Commemorating Hate: On Confederate Monuments, White Supremacy, and Where We Go From Here. 

New AADS Assistant Director is Named

Richard Paul, former Graduate Assistant and Program Specialist at AADS has been named the new Assistant Director of AADS.

Copeland Honored with Seton Medal

Associate Professor of Systematic Theology M. Shawn Copeland has been awarded the St. Elizabeth Seton Medal, established in 1966 by the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, OH, to recognize distinguished women in theology. The medal was presented to Copeland at an Oct. 12 event at the College of Mount St. Joseph, where Copeland delivered an address titled "To Be the Body of Christ."

Career Center’s RealJobs Blog series

Two former AADS minors are blogging this week for the Career Center’s RealJobs Blog series. The series gives students a day to day view of the workplace and our alumni do a great job of making the case for a strong liberal arts education. RealJobs Blog Series.

AADS Professors Promoted

Congratulations to AADS core faculty member M. Shawn Copeland for being promoted to full professor in the Theology Department and to AADS affiliate Professor Kalpana Seshadri for being promoted to full professor in the English Department.

Summers named National Humanities Center Fellow

This April, AADS History Professor Martin Summers was named as a fellow at the National Humanities Center. The national Humanities Fellowship is awarded to individuals looking to pursue research projects in the Humanities field. Congratulations!

Young invited at AU in Beirut

Dr. Cynthia Young, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, has been invited to present at American University to discuss her paper entitled "Arab Americans: The New Black."Professor Young's presentation considers the history of Arab American racialization before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To find out more information, www.aub.edu

AADS Minors Named Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Finalists

This February, AADS Minors Steven Jefferson and Phillip McHarris were chosen as finalist for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship. The 31st Annual Scholarship Ceremony occurred on February 4, 2013. In addition to being an AADS minor, Steven Jefferson, Honors Sociology '14, is also a McNair Scholar, Black History Month Committee member, and Multi-cultural Christian Fellowship Worship Leader. Phillip McHarris,Sociology and English '14, was named this year's scholarship recipient. McHarris is a former Amanda V. Houston and McGillycuddy-Logue Travel Grants recipient, Young People for an American Way Fellowship awardee, and current co-president of United Front.

Cynthia Young’s article published

Professor Cynthia Young’s article entitled “Black Ops: Black Masculinity and the War on Terror” was published in the American Quarterly.

BC Libraries features Prof. Rhonda Frederick’s article

Boston College Libraries features Prof. Rhonda Frederick’s article, "Making Jamaican Love: Colin Channer's Waiting in Vain and Romance-ified Diaspora Identities."

Prof. Rhonda Frederick's article "Genre, Gender and Eric Walrond's Equivocal Transnational Vision," is currently featured in Eric Walrond: the Critical Heritage, edited by Louis J. Parascandola and Carl A. Wade. Rhonda Frederick is a Professor of English and Director of African & African Diaspora Studies Program at Boston College. The Critical Heritage.

Peace Medie receives award for the African Politics Conference Group Best Graduate Student Paper 2010-2011

Peace A. Medie is a Ph.D. Candidate in Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include gender and security, post-conflict state-building, and civilian protection. Her dissertation addresses the variation in police officers responses to violent crimes against women in Liberia. This project is based on field research conducted in Liberia.To read more, Peace A. Medie.

Professor C. Shawn McGuffey on the Darfurian genocide

Professor C. Shawn McGuffey attended an international conference in Tanzania to discuss Darfurian refugees with African regionally-based experts, policy makers, human rights practitioners, and representatives from the Hague (International Criminal Court). Prof. McGuffey's past research helped inform the ways in which the Darfurian genocide is being handled at the International Criminal Court. His article with the International Justice Project explores attitudes in South Africa after Sudanese President Bashir was allowed to leave the country.

Prof. M. Shawn Copeland wins a first place Catholic Press Award

Theology Professor and AADS Core Faculty, Prof. M. Shawn Copeland won a first place Catholic Press Award in the category of Best Essay Originating With a Magazine or Newsletter: National General Interest Magazine. She was recognized for her piece "Revisiting Racism" for America Magazine.

Novelist and Playwright Earl Lovelace Presents at Boston College

This past March the acclaimed Trinidadian novelist Earl Lovelace read from his new novel "Is Just A Movie", a warm, gentle novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life. Boston College's Front Row video of Lovelace's reading

Brown Missteps in Way He Questions Warren on Heritage

Professor C. Shawn McGuffey, of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) and Sociology Department had an editorial published in the Boston Globe. In this article, McGuffey discusses Senator Scott Brown’s assertion that Warren “clearly is not” an American Indian. Full article.

AVH 2012 recipient Philip McHarris is this year's MLK recipient

A Bronx, NY, native and long-time New Jersey resident, McHarris was one of five candidates for the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, which recognizes a Boston College junior who embodies King’s philosophy in their life and work. Full article.

AVH Recipient Sonia Chiamaka Okorie research on malaria prevention.

Sonia Chiamaka Okorie traveled to Ghana on an Amanda V. Houston Traveling Fellowship to conduct a research project on malaria prevention as a volunteer with the Ghana Health and Education Initiative (GHEI), a non-governmental organization. As a GHEI field coordinator, she worked with other volunteers and local community health workers on comprehensive surveys that gauged the success of past malaria interventions and identified opportunities for new interventions. Read the BC Chronicle's article and Chiamaka's blog post about her experience in Ghana.