Class Highlight - St. Louis Black History, Culture and Civic Engagement

Lynne Jackson speaks to AFAS students about her great-great-grandfather, Dred Scott.

Class Acts: Kai Radford

Danforth Scholar to work with St. Louis foster children

‘The battle for memory’: Mustakeem on the intertwining histories of race and medicine

Sowande M. Mustakeem, in Arts & Sciences, discusses her seminar “Medicine, Healing and Experimentation in the Contours of Black History” and the importance of grappling with traumatic history.

Jean Allman: New Member Elected in 2023 American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Jean Allman is AFAS's newly elected member of the American Academic of Arts & Sciences! She is the third AFAS faculty to join this prestigious honorary society, the others being Gerald Early and John Baugh.

WashU faculty seek student partners in new Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Action Research Lab

The WU-CRRJ Action Research Lab led by Professors Cunningham and Ward will engage WashU undergraduate and graduate students in field research needed to investigate racially-motivated homicides in Missouri (1930-1954) in support of case investigations and restorative justice efforts led by teams of law faculty and students in the award-winning Civil Rights and Restorative Justice (CRRJ) Clinic at Northeastern University Law School.

Bones in our Basement: WU re-evaluates its acquisition of human remains

WashU’s osteology collection still contains specimens from nearly 1800 individuals from St. Louis and wider Missouri, many of them African Americans, who probably never consented to being collected for use in research and teaching.

Memory studies beyond the classroom

A new StudioLab graduate course explores trauma and memory in community spaces beyond campus.

AFAS major uses Summer Research Award to Promote the Visibility of Black Women’s Stories in Rural Mississippi

In the research and film project, “Mississippi Mud: Visibility for Black Women’s Stories in Rural Mississippi,” AFAS major Leandrea Clay uses oral histories, archival materials, photographs, and other sources to share the stories of three generations of women in her hometown of Centreville, Mississippi.

AFAS Alum '21 Tyrin Truong becomes youngest mayor-elect of hometown of Bogalusa, Louisiana

As a previous member of the University’s Student Union (SU), Truong served as both Speaker of the Senate and as Student Body President. With a double major in African American Studies and Political Science, Truong currently works as Policy Director at the Urban League Of Louisiana, and is set to transition to Bogalusa City Hall in January of next year.

As the right fights the teaching of race, a new AP course expands it

"A tug of war over disrupting or conserving social arrangements has long buffeted schools." Dr. Michelle Purdy writes for the Washington Post Made by History series, a special series on academic freedom sponsored by PEN America.

Medical, scientific racism revealed in century-old plaque from Black man’s teeth

Analysis opens new avenues for studying diseases of the past, will raise standards of working with racially sensitive collections, experts say.

Something in the water

Researchers in Arts & Sciences examine environmental injustice along waterways, shifting the current toward a more equitable future.

United Way Volunteer Spotlight: Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo

Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, ​Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and Senior Lecturer in African and African-American Studies, is recognized by the United Way for nearly a decade of volunteering and advocating for youth in foster care.

WashU faculty look to advance scholarship on legacies of racial violence

In an effort to advance research and policy addressing legacies of racial violence, three Washington University faculty members — David Cunningham, Hedwig Lee and Geoff Ward — have co-edited a special issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Rafia Zafar guest edits African American Review’s special issue on Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

This special issue of African American Review remembers, recharges, and reimagines the legacy of Afro-Borinqueño visionary Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.

Maragh-Lloyd Spotlighted in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

In this interview with JCMS Professor Maragh-Lloyd discusses the nuances of race, resistance, and technology.

Swahili students win U.S. Department of State Scholarships

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a competitive and intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American university students to study one of fifteen critical languages.

African American Review Special Schomburg Issue

Professor Rafia Zafar guest edits the African American Review's special issue featuring Arturo Schomburg.

AFAS faculty help lead WashU & Slavery, a new initiative in CRE2

Several AFAS faculty are helping to lead Washington University's participation in Universities Studying Slavery, a global consortium of nearly eighty universities across five countries engaged in examining how their institutional histories are entangled with histories and legacies of slavery. The project, WashU & Slavery, is based in the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2).

Applications Now Open for Black Digital Media Studies Tenure-Track Professor

National Milestones in Linguistics and Scientific Research

This year Professor Baugh found himself elected to two luminary academic positions.

Much Respect for "Recipes for Respect"

Professor Zafar keeps a busy schedule as folks just can't get enough of her 2019 book.

Mutonya listed among Top 100 Kenyans of 2020

In 2020 Professor Mutonya received international recognition for his use of sociolinguistic methods that focus on the interests of marginalized speech communities.

College and COVID-19

Two AFAS majors share their experiences of being in college during a pandemic.

Romance in Marseille named one of 10 best books of 2020

Buried in the archive for nearly ninety years, Professor Maxwell's edition helps to breathe new life into Harlem Renaissance literature.

AFAS Honors the Memory of Professor Garrett Albert Duncan

The Department of African & African American Studies mourns the tremendous loss of Professor Garrett Albert Duncan (Feb 1, 1961 - Dec 8, 2020)

Statement on Anti-Black Violence and a Global Pandemic

Professor Mutonya Awarded Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship

This interdisciplinary project involves graduate training and research focusing on the intersections of language, migration, urban settlement, and identity construction within enclaves of African immigrants residing in Nairobi.

Swahili students win U.S. Department of State Scholarships

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a competitive and intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American university students to study one of fifteen critical languages.

Professor Sowande' Mustakeem receives the Dred Scott Freedom Award

The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation has named AFAS and History Professor Sowande' Mustakeem the recipient of its 2020 Dred Scott Freedom Award for her multiple award winning book Slavery at Sea.

UCollege Spotlight on Zachary Manditch-Prottas for Summer Course

Impressed by the clear draw his Summer course had for students, the University College Summer School program has chosen to feature the Department of African & African-American Studies Postdoctoral Fellow, Zachary Manditch-Prottas and his course "James Baldwin: Life, Letter, Legacy" for their Faculty Spotlight.

Rafia Zafar partners with St. Louis Metro Market's "Food Bus" on Community Cookbook Project

Professor Rafia Zafar is collaborating with the St. Louis Metro Market "Food Bus" and other partners to develop a Community Cookbook Project with support from The Luminary's Futures-Fund grant program.

'Born a slave, died a chef': Professor Rafia Zafar on food and the fight for civil rights