News and Events

Professor Joseph E. Harris receives the Ephraim Williams Medal

Neil Roberts, Professor of Africana Studies, and President Maud S. Mandel present the Ephraim Williams Medal to Professor Joseph E. Harris, Williams’ first Black professor with tenure and first Chair of the Afro-American Studies Program, currently the Africana Studies Department. The Ephraim Williams Medal is awarded to a non-alumnus who… Continue reading »

“Other Destinies of Choice”: The Infinite Audre Lorde

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the 2023-2024 Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor in Africana Studies. A 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize Winner in Poetry, Alexis’s most recent book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals won the 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction. Her exciting new seminar, AFR 388 “The Black Unicorn: Audre (Lorde) as… Continue reading »

Climate Justice Series

                                       Climate Justice Series The climate crisis is on everybody’s minds especially as unbearable heatwaves, intense droughts, frightening wildfires and extreme flooding affect the world over. As extreme… Continue reading »

Rhythm, Patterns & Craft: Black Women and Electronic Music

DJ Lynneé Denise, the 2022 Sterling A. Brown Visiting Professor of Africana Studies, is an artist, scholar, and writer whose work reflects on underground cultural movements, the 1980s, migration studies, theories of escape, and electronic music of the African Diaspora. Lynnée Denise coined the phrase ‘DJ Scholarship’ to re-position the… Continue reading »

Sterling A. Brown

A call for proposals The Life and Lore of Sterling A. Brown: Celebrating Poetry, Prose, and Music A symposium at Williams College, October 20–22, 2022 Prof. Sterling A. Brown (‘22) was a scholar, educator, poet, critic, and jazz and blues aficionado. Considered the “Dean of African-American Literature,”… Continue reading »

With Deepest Respect and Gratitude

Here’s what we all owe bell hooks, beginning with me “…what she was was a genius. She was vulnerable and complex, sharp and unashamed of how she walked the world. And with courage, discipline and dedication, she carved out space for me to exist.” —DJ… Continue reading »

Flow Yoga with Quazzy

Monday, May 13, 2:00–3:00 pm Quazzy is an open-level Vinyasa and Hot Yoga Instructor, returning to Tasha Yoga for the second time, with a unique and diverse background. Quazzy has a passion for helping others and has high vibration energy and mellow mannerisms, which provides an easy going… Continue reading »

Afro-Diasporic Environmentalism Series, Fall 2018

Nkisis, Orixás and Ancestors: A Symposium “Nkisis, Orixás and Ancestors: The Role of Religion, Creativity and Environmental Ethics in the Afro-Atlantic Diaspora”  A Symposium Curated by Rachel Harding, Sterling Brown ‘22 Visiting Professor in Africana Studies  EVENTS: "Afro-Brazilian Religion and Environmental… Continue reading »