Podcasts about african american studies

It’s estimated that more than 300,000 Black women have left the workforce. Federal layoffs, budget cuts, and diversity, equity, and inclusion rollbacks are among the many contributing factors. While July data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an overall national unemployment rate of 4.2%, that number rose to 6.3% for Black women—the highest it’s been since October 2021. For a special edition of “Closer Look,” Rose talks with several guests about the unfolding unemployment shift, as well as advice for landing new employment opportunities. Guests include: Dr. Pearl Dowe, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Emory University Amber Cabral, the founder of the diversity, equity, and inclusive leadership-focused consulting firm, Cabral Co. Sherry Sims, the founder of Black Career Women's Network Alicia Thompson, impacted by job loss Alicia Smith, impacted by job loss Sandy, impacted by job lossSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his book “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States,” Kyle T. Mays, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at UCLA, argues that the foundations of the United States are rooted in Anti-Black racism and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue today. Speaking with EcoJustice Radio in 2021, he explored how Black and Indigenous peoples (sometimes together, sometimes apart) have always sought to disrupt, dismantle, and reimagine US democracy. He uses examples of the Black Power and Red Power movements of the 60s and 70s, as well as collaborations for the Standing Rock Sioux and Black Lives Matter. Dr. Mays' work seeks to illuminate how we can imagine and put into practice a more just world. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Kyle T. Mays [https://www.kyle-mays.com/] is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar of US history, urban studies, race relations, and contemporary popular culture at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Mays is an author of 3 books. “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States” is available from Beacon Press. Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Hosted by Jessica Aldridge Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 123 Photo credit: Kyle T. Mays

Professor of African American Studies at UCLA and writer Marcus Anthony Hunter gives his analysis about the future of the Voting Rights Act at 60. Rodericka Applewhaite, former Director of Black Media for the Biden-Harris adminstration and now VP of Media Relations at Focal Point Strategy Group, is back to reflect on a profoundly different political landscape since her time inside the White House.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

William A. (“Sandy”) Darity Jr. is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. He recently accepted a position at Howard University. He is an economist, author and one of the nation's leading scholars on reparations. His latest book is "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans." On this podcast edition of #FreedmenFridays Dr. Darity outlines the fundamentals of reparations and makes the case to hold out for true repair and stop calling everything reparations.https://socialequity.duke.edu/people/william-a-darity-jr-2/ https://www.amazon.com/Here-Equality-Reparations-Americans-Twenty-First/dp/1469654970 https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/

Carteret County, NC, faced a soaring overdose crisis, exacerbated by its status as a seasonal beach destination. In this episode, the Public Health Director for Carteret County, and COO of Goldie Health, share how forming a tech-enabled post-overdose response team slashed overdose deaths by nearly half. Discover the barriers Carteret overcame, the critical role lived-experience peer support specialists played, and how the county leveraged tech to streamline care coordination and analytics. Tune in for an in-depth look at a community-led innovation making a measurable impact against the opioid epidemic.What You'll Learn:How the Carteret County post-overdose response team (PORT) is organized and operatesThe role of certified peer support specialists with lived experienceHow real-time alerts and referrals connect overdose survivors with support quicklyThe drastic improvements in overdose outcomes, including a 47% drop in deaths and 87% drop in EMS callsWays technology—specifically, the Goldie tech platform—streamlines response, tracks engagement, and supports data-driven decisionsHow Goldie enables referrals for addiction treatment, housing, food, and other critical resourcesLessons learned in implementing care management technology at the local levelMODERATOR: Tom Liddell, CEO, Harmony Health ITTom Liddell leads with a core belief: that data and automation, when harnessed with purpose, can revolutionize healthcare and profoundly improve the lives of those it serves. With over 35 years of experience in healthcare IT, he brings transformative leadership and a passion for innovation to Harmony Healthcare IT. He began his career as President and Co-Founder of SMI, a healthcare technology firm that became part of the publicly traded Medical Manager Corp. He later held senior executive roles at WebMD, where he led the development and launch of integrated financial systems and electronic health records. Tom has also led the successful operation of a health information exchange and served as Chief Information Officer for a regional reference laboratory, blood bank, and pathology organization In these roles, he pioneered innovative solutions for data integration, interoperability, and clinical efficiency—further deepening his expertise in healthcare infrastructure and automation. At Harmony Healthcare IT, Tom is known for championing innovation, collaboration, and a customer-first mindset. His enduring passion for a complete, quality-driven experience continues to shape the company's reputation as a trusted leader in healthcare data management.GUEST: Matthew E. Hanis, COO & Cofounder, Goldie HealthMatt Hanis is a leading expert in the business of healthcare. He is the chief operating officer of Goldie Health, a life-saving overdose detection and case management platform. A former health system executive, he has grown health tech businesses across payer, provider, life sciences, and government. His passion is growing organizations proven to elevate healthcare mission and margin.GUEST: Nina M. Oliver, Public Health Director; Carteret County Health DepartmentNina Oliver has enjoyed 22 years of providing public health work. She currently serves as the Consolidated Health and Human Services Deputy Director and Public Health Director for Carteret County. As a public health director her priorities and interests include substance use prevention, mental and emotional health and wellness for all, minority health, and creating equitable dental care specifically in low-income populations and pregnant women. Nina graduated from Guildford College in Greensboro with a Bachelors in Psychology and African American Studies. She received her Masters from UNC Charlotte in Health Promotion with a focus in Substance Use Prevention. Nina lives in Morehead City with her 13-year-old son Chase and 5-year-old daughter, Charlie. They love going to the beach, watching sports, and trying new foods.

With Assad gone, what does an anti-imperialist line on Syria now sound like? Listen in as Professor Navid Farnia responds to many commonly asked questions about Syria.    Navid Farnia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies. His research broadly explores the relationship between racial oppression in the United States and U.S. imperialism in the context of revolution and counterrevolution. Dr. Farnia's book manuscript, National Liberation in an Imperialist World: Race, Counterrevolution, and the United States, traces the U.S. national security state's evolution by examining how U.S. officials responded to national liberation movements at home and abroad from the 1950s to 1980. The book looks at several cases, including the U.S.-orchestrated coups in Iran and Guatemala, the Cuban Revolution, the 1960s

Our co-host, Ramona Dallum, is joined by Dr. Deonte Hollowell, ⁠Program Director of African-American Studies at Spalding University⁠. Today's conversation centers around Black emancipation celebrations like Juneteenth and August 8th and the consciousness of victory.The duo discusses the origins of watch night services, the history of Western Kentucky, and the meaning of liberation.Hollowell is a native of Hopkinsville, Ky, and a graduate of the University of Louisville (Pan-African Studies) and Temple University (African-American Studies). His special area of study is the relationship between African-Americans and the police. He is on the Board of Directors for ⁠2Not1⁠, an organization that supports fathers and families, as well as The ⁠West Louisville Math and Science Project⁠.

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features Dr. Ashley Howard, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, discussing her book, Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in June 2025. In six thoroughly researched chapters, Midwest Unrest argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes in the 1960s. Howard focuses on three Midwestern sites–Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha–to explore the ways region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Using arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming African Americans' consciousness and altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives.

Hair! How I Grew It tops Feedspot's and MillionPodcasts' Best Natural Hair Podcasts. On today's show, I interview Kassidi Jones. Kassidi is an assistant curator at a Black research library. The Hartford, Connecticut native is also an antiracist animal advocate. Pets and racism – I'd never put those words together until I discovered Kassidi a few months ago on social media. When I heard her talk about the prejudice she and her pit bull Ginger have experienced, and how that led her to create Ginger's Naps, I knew I had to talk to her. More on Ginger's Naps later in the show. Kassidi said yes to my interview invite despite her very busy school schedule. The ivy leaguer has earned four degrees including a PhD – all before the age of 30. She got her bachelor's degree in Africana Studies and English from the University of Pennsylvania. At Yale, she earned her Master of Arts in African American Studies. Also at Yale, she got her Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy in African American Studies and English. Kassidi has never had a perm. She's worn her hair in its natural state since her sophomore year in high school. We started our hair talk talking about how her busy academic life has taken a toll on her natural.

Ali Velshi is joined by Senior Correspondent at Vox Zack Beauchamp, Journalist John Harwood, MSNBC Political Analyst Richard Stengel, Visiting Fellow at Center for Asia Policy Studies at The Brookings Institute Mira Rapp-Hooper, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian Jennifer Rubin, Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University Eddie Glaude

“Time for an Awakening” with Bro.Elliott & Bro. Richard, Sunday 07/06/2025 at 6:00 PM (EST), guest was Author, Historian, Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the Univ. of Houston, Dr. Gerald Horne. Dr. Horne's latest book, “The Capital of Slavery (Washington D.C. 1800-1865)” was at the center of our dialogue with our special guest. Also, Open Forum conversation on topics that affect Black people locally, nationally, and internationally.

In this episode, we present a crossover of Guerrilla History and the Adnan Husain Show.  Here, Dr. Gerald Horne joins Adnan and Henry to discuss his recent book, Armed Struggle?: Panthers and Communists, black Nationalists and Liberals in Southern California, Through the Sixties and Seventies. As ever, Professor Horne connects the histories of organizing and resistance against racial capitalism to the contemporary situation, including the LA uprisings against ICE raids and developments against neocolonialism and imperialism in West Asia. A wide-ranging conversation with the inimitable Dr. Horne ranged across the histories of class politics, struggles against racism, and geopolitics to consider the prospects for resistance locally and internationally in contemporary movements for justice. Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.  His research interests are unbelievably varied, encompassing biographies of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson, to The Haitian Revolution, to Hollywood in the '30s-'50s, to Jazz and Justice.  Be sure to check out his bibliography, you're certain to find something that interests you! Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory  We also have a (free!) newsletter you can sign up for, and please note that Guerrilla History now is uploading on YouTube as well, so do us a favor, subscribe to the show and share some links from there so we can get helped out in the algorithms!! *As mentioned, you will be able to find Tsars and Commissars: From Rus to Modern Russia soon on YouTube.

Immigration activist Thomas Kennedy joins Billy Corben in studio to talk about a new detention center that is being built in The Everglades. Plus, Alejandro de la Fuente, professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard, joins the program to talk about the effect of Donald Trump's attempt to block foreign students from entering colleges and universities in America Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coretta Brown will be entering her fifth season as a Women's Basketball Assistant Coach at Eastern Kentucky University. She previously served two season as an assistant at Georgia Southern University. Before her time at Georgia Southern Brown was an assistant at the University of West Alabama from 2017 to 2019.Brown launched a new program when she became the first head coach at Thomas University from 2012 to 2017. At Thomas, Brown coached four all-conference players, one freshman of the year, one academic all-conference, two Daktronic-NAIA Scholar Athletes and one honorable mention All-American.She has also had stops at Tennessee Tech (2009-12), Georgia High School Athletics Association (2008-09), Georgia Tech (2006-08) and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (2005-06).Brown graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2003 where she received a bachelor of arts degree in African American Studies with a minor in English. She holds the UNC record in three-point shots made (251), which ranks third in ACC history.Brown was drafted 11th overall by the San Antonio Silver Stars in the 2003 WNBA Draft before getting traded to the Indiana Fever where she played for three seasons. She played her final two years with the Chicago Sky in their inaugural season. Brown traveled internationally during the WNBA off-season and competed in FIBA World Championship Tournament in Russia for team USA.On this episode, Mike and Coretta discuss her commitment to aiding athletes in realizing their utmost potential, a principle that has guided Brown throughout her illustrious career. She reflects on her experiences, including the invaluable lessons learned while establishing a fledgling program at Thomas University, emphasizing the necessity of meeting players where they are in their development. Moreover, we explore the importance of fostering genuine connections with players, recognizing that success transcends mere victories and lies in the lasting impact coaches can have on their athletes' lives. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of player development, coaching philosophy, and the transformative power of basketball in shaping young lives.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.Make sure you're subscribed to the Hoop Heads Pod on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and while you're there please leave us a 5 star rating and review. Your ratings help your friends and coaching colleagues find the show. If you really love what you're hearing recommend the Hoop Heads Pod to someone and get them to join you as a part of Hoop Heads Nation.Have a notebook and pen by your side as you listen to this episode with Coretta Brown, Women's Basketball Assistant Coach at Eastern Kentucky University.Website - https://ekusports.com/sports/womens-basketballEmail - coretta.brown@eku.eduTwitter- @coachbreezieVisit our Sponsors!Dr. Dish BasketballOur friends at Dr. Dish Basketball are here to help you transform your team's training this off-season with exclusive offers of up to $4,000 OFF their Rebel+, All-Star+, and CT+ shooting machines. Unsure about budget? Dr. Dish offers schools-only Buy...

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), psychiatrists' notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists' theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people's unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery's wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession. Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. This episode's host, Jacob Barrett, is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. For more information, visit his website thereluctantamericanist.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

The Author Events Series presents Caro De Robertis | So Many Stars REGISTER In Conversation with Dr. Michelle Taylor So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations--who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers. De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life: kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new, and that young trans and nonbinary people today belong to a long lineage. The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking, full of personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis's words, So Many Stars shares "behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant--and still means--to create an authentic life, against the odds." A writer of Uruguayan origins, Caro De Robertis is the author of six novels, including The Palace of Eros, Cantoras, and more. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous honors, including two Stonewall Book Awards, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, which they were the first openly nonbinary writer to receive. De Robertis is also an award-winning literary translator and a professor at San Francisco State University. They live in Oakland, California with their two children. Dr. Michelle Taylor holds a Ph.D. in Africology & African American Studies from Temple University and is an educator, writer, and activist. She also earned an M.S.W. from CUNY-Hunter College and served her community as a social worker for eighteen years prior to entering academia. Dr. Taylor is the author of Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets and her work focuses on African American women, mass media, and social justice. Dr. Taylor founded Sankofa Summer School, a  ritual Afrocentric academy that educates students about topics relevant to people of the African Diaspora.  The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/2/2025)

Charles Coleman Jr. is in for Ali Velshi and is joined by Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian Jennifer Rubin, Political Analyst for SiriusXM Ameshia Cross, Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University Eddie Glaude, Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University Christina Greer

Featuring: Rohadi Nagassar, Sharifa Stevens, and Sarah E. Westfall Episode 11 in the serial series ‘Farewell Evangelicalism’, designed to name malformed pillars that shape evangelical/conservative Christian thought and beliefs. One of the counters to evangelical community is to demonstrate the expansive nature of belonging and liberation. Where evangelicalism demands assimilation to specific morals and theological persuasions, catching a glimpse of what freedom and living out your whole self looks like goes a long way to help make the switch and ultimately leave life-taking church community. In this episode my guests discuss some of the impediments in church community such as fear, and where we can look to replace harmful demands. Freedom to be your whole self, liberation from malformed theological systems, and ultimately community where you can belong and live as your true self without the mask are all out there. Sometimes it just takes a little nudge in search of belonging. Episode 11 Show Notes (00:00) Introduction with Rohadi (5:24) Sarah Westfall intro and her story. (7:15) When belonging starts getting complicated…. (10:44) A conversation on authenticity vs performance. (14:40) Leaving community behind and the loneliness it brings. (18:04) Resisting the attention economy. (25:00) Countering the tool of ‘fear’. (29:00) Interlude (29:44) Poetry Interlude with Sharifa (30:50) Intro Sharifa Steven and chatting about her latest book. (33:25) Holding the tension for liberation; seeking the ancestors. (37:15) The legacy of the ancestors and what it means to our liberation. (40:28) Naming the hope that is to come and what it looks like. (56:18) Outro Featuring your host: Rohadi Nagassar (he/him) Rohadi’s books can be found here, including his latest publication, When We Belong. Reclaiming Christianity on the Margins. Visit his online church community: https://abeautifultable.ca/ Sharifa Stevens Sharifa Stevens is a writer, poet, speaker, and singer. She is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, born and raised in New York, and currently resides with her family in Dallas, Texas. She graduated from Columbia University in New York with a bachelor's degree in African American Studies before earning a master's in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. Sharifa aspires to use writing as a vehicle that moves readers to intersect with the sacred and the honest. Her latest book is When We Talk to God: A Powerful New Book of Prayers and Poems for Black Women. SharifaStevens.com | IG: SharifaWrites Sarah E. Westfall Sarah Westfall’s lastest book is called The Way of Belonging: Reimagining Who We Are and How We Relate (available in both print, digital, and audio formats). Sign up for her Substack newsletter, Human Together, or check out her podcast (which happens to go by the same name). Sarah_Westfall on Instagram. Bumper music by Daniel Wheat; Intro by Jesse Peters

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Professor of African-American Studies, scholar of political economy and historical sociology, and author of Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States Charisse Burden-Stelly returns to Bad Faith to discuss the No Kings protests, the media backlash to the L.A. protests, the new Red Scare, and what history tells us about how to fight back. She also weighs on on why neoliberal pundits from Jake Tapper to Zadie Smith have been attacking the paradigm of "oppressed vs. oppressor," and why it may be time for the left to firmly defend "woke." Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Two years after the state's landmark report on reparations for Black residents, where does the effort stand? The California Legislative Black Caucus has put forth bills to address equity issues like unjust property seizures or to help obtain professional licenses, but few bills have cleared the legislature or made it past Governor Newsom's desk. We look at what progress has been made since the report's release, and if lawmakers still have the political will to act. Guests: Marcus Anthony Hunter, professor of sociology & African American Studies, UCLA Isaac G. Bryan, member, California State Assembly, 55th District; vice chair, California Legislative Black Caucus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this powerful special edition of the AAS Podcast, host Tera Hunter—Chair of Princeton's Department of African American Studies—leads an urgent and reflective Juneteenth conversation with distinguished scholars Joshua Guild and Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Together, they explore the deep historical roots and contemporary significance of Juneteenth, not merely as a commemoration of emancipation, but as a critical reminder of the ongoing struggle for Black freedom and justice in America. The episode unpacks the delayed emancipation of enslaved people in Texas and how that moment has come to symbolize both liberation and the persistent deferral of true justice. The guests discuss how Juneteenth can serve as a tool for historical education and political awareness in a time of mounting resistance to teaching about race and systemic inequality. They confront today's challenges—from voter suppression to book bans—and connect them to longstanding efforts to silence Black history. Topics range from the fight for economic justice and the risk of performative recognition of Black holidays, to the power of grassroots organizing and the legacy of Black resistance. The conversation concludes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to move beyond celebration and toward meaningful engagement with their communities—through education, advocacy, and sustained activism. Above all, the episode asks: What does freedom truly mean, and how do we continue to fight for it? With clear-eyed realism and a commitment to hope, this Juneteenth conversation invites listeners to reflect, resist, and reimagine the path forward.

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-studies

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize. Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking. Professor Akyeampong is the former Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies and the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on English labor history, and his bachelor's degree in History and Religions from the University of Ghana at Legon in 1984. Professor Akyeampong is currently the Ellen Gurney Professor of Professor Akyeampong's publications include Themes in West Africa's History (2005), which he edited; Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (2023); Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, 1850 to Recent Times (2001); and Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Present Times (1996). He was a co-chief editor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., for the Dictionary of African Biography, 6 Vols. (2012). Professor Akyeampong has been awarded several research fellowships, and from 1993 to 1994, he was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University. He was named a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2002, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. At Harvard, Professor Akyeampong is a faculty associate for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the executive committee of the Hutchins Center. As a former chair of the Committee on African Studies, he has been instrumental, along with Professor Gates, in creating the Department of African and African American Studies and formerly served as the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies. You can learn more about Professor Akyeampong's work here Afua Baafi Quarshie is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on mothering and childhood in post-independence Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

June 19, 1865 - Galveston, Texas, a general in the Union army announced to the people of Texas that all enslaved African Americans were free. Over time the date has grown from a local to a national holiday, a marker of freedom, of family, and of joy and continued struggle that emerged from this cauldron of the war.Don's guest today is Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University and host of Left of Black.Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

At the height of the Civil War, on May 12, 1862, Robert Smalls—an enslaved harbor pilot in Charleston, South Carolina—carried out one of the most courageous and cunning acts in American history. He disguised himself as a captain and, in the dead of night, commandeered the ship he worked on and sailed it to freedom. By the time Confederate soldiers realized what was happening, it was too late: Smalls, along with seven other enslaved crew members and their families, had run the blockade. Smalls' heroism, and material aid for the Union, made national headlines and influenced Lincoln's decision to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army. He later captained the very boat he took and, after the war, became a Congressman.DEFIANT: The Story of Robert Smalls (Stranger Comics, 2025) seeks to elevate Smalls to his rightful place in the national consciousness. The graphic novel—written by Rob Edwards (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Academy-Award nominated The Princess and the Frog) and drawn by comic book artists Nikolas Draper-Ivey (Black Panther soundtrack cover, Static: Shadows Of Dakota) and Ray-Anthony Height (Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Doctor Aphra)—details Smalls' childhood, his efforts to buy his freedom, and finally, the extraordinary events of that night in Charleston Harbor over 150 years ago. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at omariaverette@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

At the height of the Civil War, on May 12, 1862, Robert Smalls—an enslaved harbor pilot in Charleston, South Carolina—carried out one of the most courageous and cunning acts in American history. He disguised himself as a captain and, in the dead of night, commandeered the ship he worked on and sailed it to freedom. By the time Confederate soldiers realized what was happening, it was too late: Smalls, along with seven other enslaved crew members and their families, had run the blockade. Smalls' heroism, and material aid for the Union, made national headlines and influenced Lincoln's decision to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army. He later captained the very boat he took and, after the war, became a Congressman.DEFIANT: The Story of Robert Smalls (Stranger Comics, 2025) seeks to elevate Smalls to his rightful place in the national consciousness. The graphic novel—written by Rob Edwards (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Academy-Award nominated The Princess and the Frog) and drawn by comic book artists Nikolas Draper-Ivey (Black Panther soundtrack cover, Static: Shadows Of Dakota) and Ray-Anthony Height (Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Doctor Aphra)—details Smalls' childhood, his efforts to buy his freedom, and finally, the extraordinary events of that night in Charleston Harbor over 150 years ago. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at omariaverette@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

At the height of the Civil War, on May 12, 1862, Robert Smalls—an enslaved harbor pilot in Charleston, South Carolina—carried out one of the most courageous and cunning acts in American history. He disguised himself as a captain and, in the dead of night, commandeered the ship he worked on and sailed it to freedom. By the time Confederate soldiers realized what was happening, it was too late: Smalls, along with seven other enslaved crew members and their families, had run the blockade. Smalls' heroism, and material aid for the Union, made national headlines and influenced Lincoln's decision to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army. He later captained the very boat he took and, after the war, became a Congressman.DEFIANT: The Story of Robert Smalls (Stranger Comics, 2025) seeks to elevate Smalls to his rightful place in the national consciousness. The graphic novel—written by Rob Edwards (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Academy-Award nominated The Princess and the Frog) and drawn by comic book artists Nikolas Draper-Ivey (Black Panther soundtrack cover, Static: Shadows Of Dakota) and Ray-Anthony Height (Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Doctor Aphra)—details Smalls' childhood, his efforts to buy his freedom, and finally, the extraordinary events of that night in Charleston Harbor over 150 years ago. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at omariaverette@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Today's special guest is Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, Inaugural Chair of the Department of African-American Studies at UCLA and two-term President of the Association of Black Sociologists. Dr. Hunter joins Host Ramses Ja to discuss National Equity Week. Part 1 of 2 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

University of Georgia professor, Rafiki Jenkins, joins Doc and Mike to discuss the origins of human monstrosity (can a human be monstrous?) and how horror fictions presents and complicates history and American culture. We hope you have a fortunate Friday the 13th!   Jerry Rafiki Jenkins is Assistant Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia. Rafiki holds a doctorate in Literature from the University of California, San Diego, and his research focuses on Black speculative fiction and film, with an emphasis on horror, and future human studies. Rafiki is the author of Anti-Blackness and Human Monstrosity in Black American Horror Fiction (Ohio State UP, 2024) and The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction (Ohio State UP, 2019), and he co-edited, with Martin Japtok, Human Contradictions in Octavia E. Butler's Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Authentic Blackness/Real Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (Peter Lang, 2011). Rafiki has also authored several book chapters, and his peer-reviewed articles appear in Pacific Coast Philology, Screening Noir, African American Review, Journal of Children's Literature, and Science Fiction Studies.     About this podcast: MONSTERS! They haunt our days and chill our dreaming nights, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson. There's not a population on earth that does not have its own unique monster stories to tell to frighten, but also to instruct on the nature of good and evil, right and wrong. But what happens when monsters get out of control, when the monstrous imagination starts to bleed over into the real world? What are the effects of monsters on real people's real lives? This podcast examines the histories and mysteries of some of our favorite monsters to unlock their secrets and expose their influence on our lives.   About the hosts: Michael Chemers (MFA, PhD) is a Professor of Dramatic Literature in the Department of Theater Arts at UC Santa Cruz. His work on monsters includes The Monster in Theatre History: This Thing of Darkness (London, UK: Routledge 2018). Dr. Chemers is the Founding Director of The Center for Monster Studies. Formerly the Founding Director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy Program at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined the faculty of UCSC in 2012. He is also the author of Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010) and Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007). Dr. Chemers is also an actor, a juggler, and a writer of drama. Mike Halekakis is an entrepreneur, business owner, internet marketer, software engineer, writer, musician, podcaster, and hardcore situational enthusiast. He is the co-founder of What We Learned, a company that specializes in compassionate training courses on complex adult subjects such as caregiving for people who are sick, planning for death, and administering after the loss of a loved one. He is also the CEO of Moneyfingers Inc., a company that trains people on how to successfully create, market, and sell products on the internet. When not burning the candle at both ends with a blowtorch, Mike loves video games, outdoor festivals, reading comics and novels, role-playing, writing and playing music, hanging out with the world's best cats, and spending time with his amazing wife and their collective worldwide friend-group.

This week we’re joined by Mary Frances Phillips, a scholar-activist, public intellectual, and Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her interdisciplinary research agenda focuses on race and gender in post-1945 social movements and the carceral state. Her scholarly interests include the Modern Black Freedom Struggle, Black Feminism, and Black Power Studies. Her first book Black Panther Woman chronicles the life and spiritual practices of Ericka Huggins, a founding member of the Black Panther Party and the first woman to hold a leadership role within the movement. Unpacking her unlawful arrest, latent queerness, and journey from resistance warrior to revolutionary; Dr. Phillips helps close the gap on how some of the movement philosophy of the past has made its way into the current day. About the Podcast The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Resources & Announcements Registration for the 2nd Annual Holding Space for Healers Therapist Summit is now open! Join us July 24–26, 2025 in Atlanta, GA for this one-of-a-kind event designed for Black mental health professionals, offering the tools, connections, and resources to grow your practice, strengthen your brand, and expand your impact in a meaningful way.​Register for the summit here! Did you know you can leave us a voice note with your questions for the podcast? If you have a question you'd like some feedback on, topics you'd like to hear covered, or want to suggest movies or books for us to review, drop us a message at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls and let us know what’s on your mind. We just might share it on the podcast. Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals. Where to Find Our Guest Instagram - @maryfrancesphillips maryfrancesphillips.com Instagram - @ericka_huggins Stay Connected Join us in over on Patreon where we're building community through our chats, connecting at Sunday Night Check-Ins, and soaking in the wisdom from exclusive series like Ask Dr. Joy and So, My Therapist Said. ​ Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox. If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory. Grab your copy of our guided affirmation and other TBG Merch at therapyforblackgirls.com/shop. The hashtag for the podcast is #TBGinSession. Make sure to follow us on social media: Twitter: @therapy4bgirls Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls Our Production Team Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Maya Cole Howard Senior Producer: Ellice Ellis Producers: Tyree Rush & Ndeye ThioubouSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we explore the famed city of Timbuktu. How did it grow from a trading post on the edge of the Sahara to a major centre of trade, learning and culture at the height of the Islamic Golden Age?Joining us is Kai Mora, a writer, historian and PhD student in African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Kai takes us on a tour of the city's history, and explains its enduring legacy in the face of colonial disruption and conflict.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Tim Arstall.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Guest: Kelly Lytle Hernández is the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and the director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.  She is a 2019 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and the author of the award-winning books Migra!, City of Inmates, and her latest, Bad Mexicans Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History. The post The Mexican Revolution and The Migrants Who Sparked it appeared first on KPFA.

Join me for a conversation with Dr. Seulghee Lee (Assistant Professor of African American Studies and English, University of South Carolina) about his recently published book, Other Lovings: An AfroAsian American Theory of Life (Ohio State UP, 2025). Some topics of our discussion include Adrian Tomine's graphic novel Shortcomings (2007), Gayl Jones' novella Corregidora (1975), and the cultural phenomenon of "Linsanity" and the lasting impact of NBA player Jeremy Lin's rise to fame. In Other Lovings, Seulghee Lee traces the presence and plenitude of love embedded in Black and Asian American literatures and cultures to reveal their irreducible power to cohere minoritarian social life. Bringing together Black studies, Asian American studies, affect theory, critical theory, and queer of color critique, Lee examines the bonds of love in works by Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde, David Henry Hwang, Gayl Jones, Fred Moten, Adrian Tomine, and Charles Yu. He attends to the ontological force of love in popular culture, investigating Asian American hip-hop and sport through readings of G Yamazawa, Year of the Ox, and Jeremy Lin, as well as in Black public culture through bell hooks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cornel West. By assessing love's positive function in these works, Lee argues against critical regimes, such as Afropessimism and racial melancholia, that center negativity. In revealing what Black and Asian American traditions share in their positive configurations of being and collectivity, and in their responses to the overarching logic of white supremacy, Other Lovings suggests possibilities for thinking beyond sociological opposition and historical difference and toward political coalition and cultural affinity. Ultimately, Other Lovings argues for a counter-ontology of love—its felt presence, its relational possibilities, and its lived practices. This episode was hosted by Asia Adomanis, a PhD student in the Department of History of Art at Ohio State. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Mar 10, 2023 In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on two fantastic guests, Prof. Charisse Burden-Stelly and Prof. Jodi Dean. We discuss their co-edited collection, Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women's Political Writing, which is an absolutely indispensable resource for those of us serious about achieving liberation!  This collection includes writings focused on the period from 1919-1956, which argue that racial and economic equality can only be achieved by overthrowing capitalism.  Pick up the book! Dr. CBS is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University.  She is an organizer with Black Alliance for Peace and a Co-Author of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History alongside our mutual friend Gerald Horne.  She can be followed on twitter @blackleftaf or on her website https://www.charisseburdenstelly.com/. Dr. Jodi Dean is a Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.  She is the author of numerous books including Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging, Crowds and Party, and The Communist Horizon.  She can be followed on twitter @jodi7768. ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio HERE

Disability Series, #4 of 4. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was an ethically problematic, to say the least, medical research project conducted in Alabama. Officially titled “The Effects of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” this government-sponsored research project was conducted by the United States Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama, between 1932 and 1972. For four decades, researchers observed the progression of untreated syphilis in approximately 399 African American men without their informed consent. Many of the men thought they were being treated for “bad blood,” which had a variety of connotations. They were not aware that they were being actively blocked from receiving effective treatment, even after penicillin became the recognized standard of care for syphilis in the 1940s. Rather than viewing the study as an isolated event, we'll see how the Tuskegee study fits into a broader framework of American medical and disability history and racial discrimination.  Select Bibliography Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. (Simon and Schuster, 1993).  Lederer, Susan. “Experimentation on Human Beings.” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 19, No. 5, Medicine and History (Sep., 2005), pp. 20-22. Reverby,  Susan Mokotoff. Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy. (University of North Carolina Press, 2009).  Sharma, Alankaar. “Diseased Race, Racialized Disease: The Story of the Negro Project of American Social Hygiene Association Against the Backdrop of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.” Journal of African American Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June 2010), pp. 247-262.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The United States has more martial arts schools than any other country – by far. Chances are you or someone you know practiced karate or another martial art growing up. While martial arts gained popularity in the U.S. for many reasons, one name stands out: Jhoon Rhee. Known as the Father of American Taekwondo, Rhee famously taught Bruce Lee how to kick and Muhammed Ali how to punch. His bare-knuckled American dream made an impact on generations of Americans.Guests: Terence Nicholson, a D.C.-based artist. Creator of Safety Jacket: A Mourning in ChinatownSojin Kim, curator for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's exhibition: Sightlines, Chinatown and BeyondM. Aziz, an Assistant Professor of African American Studies in the Department of American Ethnic Studies at the University of WashingtonChun Rhee, son of Jhoon RheeJimmy Rhee, son of Jhoon Rhee