Letter from the Chair:
After a nearly fifteen-year hiatus, I am honored to return as interim chair of the Department of African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) at the University of Maryland. Times have changed, but not the resolve of our faculty and staff to maintain a collective commitment to academic excellence and the multidisciplinary scholarly study of some of the most pressing societal and academic issues before us – from gun violence, African/Black diaspora and globalization, Black childhood racial socialization and grassroots politics, and, ultimately, graduate school or career preparation.
The demands and expectations have been enormous, considering the current political environment and academic and personal pressures on so many students. Yet, it has been another impressive year for our stellar faculty, staff, and students.
John Drabinski and Ashley Newby continue The Black Studies podcast—the number of podcast participants has grown exponentially, recently surpassing its 200th episode. Along with the podcast, his impressive teaching, and serving as AAAS associate chair, Drabinski published three books in a single academic year: Atlantic Theory: On the Vicissitudes of Relation (Edinburgh University Press), So Unimaginable a Price: Baldwin and the Black Atlantic (Northwestern University Press), and At the Margins of Nihilism: Deconstruction and Social Death (Fordham University Press). This is a first for AAAS and likely for most other UMD academic units.
I am honored to share that AAAS and psychology professor Oscar A. Barbarin has published two books this year: Building Emotional Resilience in Black Boys Building Social Assets to Overcome Racism and Adversity (Oxford University Press), and Smart Discipline: How Effective School Districts Tackle Misconduct (HiPoint Press). Dr. Barbarin concludes his stellar UM academic career; he will be the first AAAS professor emeriti.
The AAAS forthcoming department publication docket includes several recent intellectually rich publications by Drs. Sangeetha Madhavan, Joseph B. Richardson, Angel S. Dunbar, and Periloux C. Peay. In addition, forthcoming are my own co-edited volume, Conceptualizing Race, Ethnicity and Gender In the African/Black Diaspora: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, and a biography of Black feminist educator, labor, and religious leader Nannie Helen Burroughs (Yale University Press Black Lives series), and Periloux C. Peay’s book, Riptides: How the Spread of Racial Policies Fuels Volatility in American States (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).
Most notably, I share with our newsletter readers information about the rich interdisciplinary and community-based research of Dr. Richardson, focusing on gun violence. It culminates in two recent episodes of his riveting documentary film titled Life After a Gunshot.
With the addition of two recent exceptional faculty hires, Assistant Professors Ashley Everson and Beka Guluma, along with the impressive research of Sangeetha Madhavan focusing on marriage, kinship, and child well-being in Kenya (featured at Dean Susan Rivera’s BSOS + Collaborative Research Showcase), along with the forthcoming publications by Drs. Harley and George Kintiba. Collectively, they firmly establish AAAS as an important site of African Diaspora and globalization on the College Park campus and in the academy.
One of the historic benchmarks of this and other interdisciplinary AAAS departments is its collaborative work with colleagues across multiple academic disciplines and its student and community outreach reflected in our recent event programming including: professional track faculty Shane Walsh and Ashley Newby, along with John Drabinski, led a film screening of Sinners followed by a post-screening discussion led by Ashley Newby, Jennifer Cho (Asian American Studies), Chad Infante (English), and Will Mosley (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). Associate Professor Chinyere Osuji developed an AAAS co-sponsored event, “Blackness in Kpop,” with University Honors, the Slaughter Endowed Lecture Series, and the Asian American Studies Program, featuring a lecture by Dr. Crystal Anderson, author of Soul in Seoul.
AAAS faculty and staff have been honored with two campus awards. Assistant professor Angel S. Dunbar received the 2025 BSOS Excellence in Research Award to recognize her “significant contributions to the research mission of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.” Assistant program director and academic advisor Marshal Washington received a grant from the Do Good Campus Fund. This prestigious award will enable Marshal and his collaborators to re-launch our Saturday Freedom School (SFS) to support its mission of providing academic enrichment, mentoring, and cultural education to nearby middle school students. The SFS is modeled after the historic Freedom Schools of the 1960s and 1970s, designed to foster positive identity, academic confidence, community engagement, and assist nearby middle-school students in improving their math and writing skills and their self-confidence.
Finally, as chair, I was honored to attend the installation of the Prince George’s County executive director, Aisha N. Braveboy, at the invitation of my former student and AAAS alumna Erica Puentes, Legislative Coordinator of Progressive Maryland. We are proud that several Maryland, particularly Prince George’s, elected officials received their B.A. degrees and undergraduate certificates in African American and Africana Studies. It might be surprising to some readers of our AAAS Crossroads newsletter and our website, and likely not to most of our students, staff, faculty, and friends, that the New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has an undergraduate degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College. A recent alumnus shared with me that the African American and Africana Studies department’s long-standing emphasis on critical thinking, multi-disciplinary research, public policy, and community engagement prepared him and others to either be promising graduate students or to pursue community-based, political, or policy career opportunities.
Many of the accomplishments listed above would not have been achievable without the unrelenting support and administrative talents of the other Sharon, director of administrative services Sharon Hodgson; business manager Rachel Schupbach; and administrative coordinator Natalie Rivera. The latter produces our Weekly Newsletter for our students.
We are immensely grateful and proud of our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends, and we truly appreciate the support of BSOS Dean Susan M. Rivera. Your presence, contributions, and involvement represent UMD and AAAS at their very best.
Thank you
