U of M African American and African Studies

Take a look at our new Graduate Seminar coming this Fall 2024!! This class is taught by our new instructor, Professor Rahsaan Mahadeo. Sign up for AFRO 8910!!

Course Description: “What time is it?” is a seemingly benign question asked to orient a person to time and space. The banality of the question, though, should not excuse what are arguably serious onto-epistemological limitations. Rather than using an adjective (i.e., “what”), it is more generative to use a determiner (e.g., “whose”). Asking “Whose time is it?” exposes the possibility that some may own time, while others can only owe it. Not only does the question help distinguish between time’s owners and borrowers, but it opens up space for explanations of temporal and capitalist exploitation. If time is money, will the end of time mark the end of capitalism? And, if all capitalism is racial capitalism, then all time must be racial time. Is it then possible to conceive of the abolition of time as a commitment to black liberation and anti-capitalism? This graduate seminar directly engages these questions as a key analytic to examine dispossession, capitalism and racial capitalism, industrialization and “postindustrialism,” black liberation, colonial relations of space and time, etc.

Follow umnafro or email [email protected] for more information!!

Here is another course coming this Fall 2024, taught by our new hire Professor Ana Cláudia Saõ Bernardo. Sign up!!

Course Description: The second half of the 20 th century witnessed, in the literary arena,
an explosion of writing by black women in Africa and its diasporas. But although there has been
an increasing interest in these women’s writings, it can hardly be said that they occupy a central
place in literary and critical theory. This course seeks to explore black female literary voices
from Africa and its diasporas. Topics of particular interest will include, though not limited to,
colonial patriarchy and the erosion of traditional values, the dynamics of gender in postcolonial
contexts, the intersections between the public and private spheres in women’s narratives, the
struggle to negotiate gender, racial, class boundaries, national memory and national identity in
women’s writings on displacement, as well as women’s agency through spatial/social mobility.

Sign up for our Fall course AFRO 1903!!!

Course Description:

China’s ascendancy as an economic and political global power has been the subject of much scholarly and political debate. Specifically, China’s renewed interest in Africa continues to beg the question, what is China’s Africa strategy or Africa-China strategy? Some scholars have suggested that China’s strategic interests in Africa are purely economic, more specifically, resource extraction and exploitation, which has led to renewed concerns of neo-colonialism! Other questions that have been raised include how this engagement will benefit the African countries engaged with China. This course seeks to examine/explore these issues and better understand how China’s engagement in Africa may have lasting consequences for the continent’s future.

This course will explore grassroots struggles of black people on the African continent, the United States, and in the Caribbean. More specifically, this course examines the various responses of African-Americans to the events in Africa that relate directly to colonialism.

Join us at the Bell Museum for a screening of Blackwaters: Brotherhood in the Wild and a chance to meet the cast. Presented by University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, in partnership with the Bell Museum, Minneapolis Parks Foundation, Melanin in Motion, and several University partner.

Blackwaters encompasses the power of 5 Black men whose paths have been challenged with loss, defeat, fear, pain, and the social injustices Black men and Black boys face every day. Through surviving life’s trials, each man has found grace and success in the outdoors, healed and mended by nature’s medicine, embracing the art of fly fishing and building brotherhood. The film highlights their journey through the Gates of the Arctic Circle National Park and follows their adventures and dialogue as they learn to hold space in nature as anglers paving the road for the next generation.

Event information can be found here: https://forestry.umn.edu/events/blackwaters-film

(This event is free with registration)

Happy Friday!! Here is another course you should look into for your Fall 2024 Registration! Black Northern & Central Europe, taught by Dr. Watkins. Scan the QR code and take a look.

Have a good weekend!

We’ve got something cooking….🤭

[FREE EVENT] Join us for a Job Talk and Lunch Discussion this Thursday April 4th!!

Ana Cláudia São Bernardo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Studies at Providence College. She has an MA and PhD in Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics from the University of Minnesota and a BA Comparative Literature from the UNESP in São Paulo, Brazil.

[FREE EVENT] Interested in archaeology? Dr. Alicia Odewale, CEO of Anthropology Rewritten, LLC and adjunct assistant professor at Rice University, will speak on African archaeology. Her research focuses on African heritage in the US and Caribbean, including the US Virgin Islands and her native state of Oklahoma.

Here is the second batch of our FALL 2024 Courses! Start thinking about registration coming up in April 2024!! DM or email us at [email protected] for any questions!!

Prof. Fergus is a Avarh E. Strickland Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies at the University of Missouri. His research interests include race, mobility, public policy, political economy.

[FREE EVENT] Vision Lunch Talk + AA&AS Job Talks + Graduate and Undergraduate Student Tea/Coffee Hour!

Prof. Hobson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. His research focuses on the Black South, urban history, Civil rights, and the politics of Atlanta, GA.

[FREE EVENT] Vision Lunch Talk + AA&AS Job Talks + Graduate and Undergraduate Student Tea/Coffee Hour

Get a look at our Fall 2024 Course selection (Part 1)!! Start thinking about registration coming up in a few months! DM or email ([email protected]) with any questions about course details!

AFRO’s Best!! Ending off Black History Month with a dinner.

Congratulations Josef!!

Please join the Department of Anthropology for a fascinating talk by Dr. Hanna Garth who will preview her forthcoming book, Serving the other: “health food” as a racial project. This work, based on more than a decade of ethnographic research in predominantly Black and Latinx areas of Los Angeles, explores the complex dimensions of inequality, racism, and other axes of discrimination that inhibit access to healthy foods in low-income communities.

This is a tour event for the Given’s Collection! It is open to undergraduates, graduate students, professionals, staff and faculty. If you are interested, scan the QR code or click the link below!

https://forms.gle/PndRdDvnT8LLHjU86

Looking for a Summer 2024 course? Sign up for AFRO 3601W - African Literature! This course fulfills the Global Perspectives, Literature, and Writing Intensive requirements.

Description: The globalized present has witnessed increased mobility as economic, political and social arrest intensify forcing mass location of population scorching deserts, treacherous mountains, and perilous seas. in the United States and Western Europe, specifically the consequence of this mobility–immigration–remains the single most crosscutting issue and the most vexed political challenge of the day. This course addresses the key issues that arise in contemporary immigration and global security debates.

Explore Swahili Language classes!

Sign up for Afro 1101: Intro to African American Studies

Afro Board Brunch 🎉🎉 feat. .umn .umn Thank you to everyone that made this possible!!

Take a break from studying and enjoy some FREE coffee and donuts!! ☕️🍩

Take a look at our East African Languages Brochure!! On the next slide, you can take a look at some of the classes we offer in the Fall and Spring Semester.

AA&AS Open House | Thurs, Oct. 5th, 1PM -

AA&AS Open House | Thurs, Oct. 5th, 1PM BOOK GIVEAWAY We are giving away books donated by AA&AS faculty emeriti and friends of the department. Come and pick out some great books to add to your collection! 

Join us for our open house on Thursday, October 5th from 1-3 PM!!

We’re Hiring‼️‼️
Scan the QR code of more info.

‼️Register now for AFRO 3131‼️

Trust us, this an amazing class you won’t want to miss out on!!

Our course display case is located in the Gopher Way Tunnel from Blegen Hall to the Social Sciences Building!