State of World Concerns
Greetings Vols Community and Friends,
I am Shayla C. Nunnally, a professor of political science and our new chair of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I am excited to become a member of the Vols Nation. It is my honor to be joining you for my first year at the university, as I join the rich legacy of leadership with our Africana Studies program, which proudly touts a more than 50-year history at our university. Born of the 1960s student protest movement to enhance educational curricula at various levels of education, with courses that focused on the history, culture, politics, and circumstances of people of African descent, our program represents all these aspects of learning about people of African descent. We promote knowledge-building about African-descendent people around the world, or what is also known as the African diaspora.
A Year in Review
As we celebrate the New Year, we are reminded of the dark, challenging, and resilient times of 2020, when, during unprecedented times with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have come to understand more clearly the various racial disparities that bear disproportionate effects on access to health care among communities of people of color. We have grappled also with the legacies of racial construction and discrimination that have contributed to our discourses about injustice and inequality. Our students have continued learning timely information, at one of the best universities in the nation, as people around the world continue to process the true meaning of Black Lives Matter, in the several months since our witnessing the global effects of the senseless death of George Floyd and the ignition of a movement worldwide to pursue equality and justice for people of African descent. Even in those delicate times, we see continuing cries for further considerations of justice for the police-related shooting of Jacob Blake and the policerelated killing of Breonna Taylor.
We also continue to reckon with the effects of slavery and Jim Crow on the development of American society, while centering Black lives and the contributions of African-descendent people, as communities across the country acknowledged the historic discrimination against Black Americans and shored up the historic documentation of what happened to these often segregated and disparaged communities. For example, even in the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, via the use of purported urban renewal programs, our city’s Black community neighborhoods and institutions were ravaged to build the highway system, and the local city apologized for this grievance. In two, historic US elections in November 2020 and a run-off Senate election in January 2021, we also have witnessed the elections of the nation’s first woman (of African and Asian descent) elected to the vice presidency, former Senator Kamala Harris, and the fourth Black American (man) elected to the US Senate from the American South (the first to represent Georgia), Reverend Raphael Warnock.
Last summer, under the leadership of our former Interim Chair Dawn Duke and Vice Chairs Katy Chiles and Amadou Sall, our program took a united stand against injustice and asserted the value of Black life, pointing out that Black Lives Matter does not denigrate the lives of others. Rather, it empowers the meaning that Black lives should be treated equally to all people’s lives. This is where Africana Studies, as a discipline comprised of interdisciplinary perspectives, enhances our understanding of people’s experiences in the African diaspora (around the world), while also emphasizing the significance of thought, politics, culture, expression, and activism.
In a historic moment during the height of Black Lives Matter protests and the expressions of (Black) supporting faculty to enhance the learning and discussions about Black people and their professional presence on campus, this past summer, Chancellor Donde Plowman announced her support of our program transitioning into a department. This means that, with official approval in the future, we will be able to offer our major and minor in Africana studies, as distinctive undergraduate degrees. The 50-year origin of our Africana Studies program resembles a society of Americans seeking to become more inclusive by educating more. Herein, I provide some of the history of our historic beginnings, as an early-initiated program with coursework in Africana Studies. It is through “Remembering Black Pasts, Building Black Futures,” in homage to the significance of Sankofa, the Akan (Ghanaian) word suggesting that we look back to move forward, that we are inspirited to grow our program into a new department.
As we reflect on our growth, we are excited to see one of our own featured in the KnoxBiz 40 under 40 class of 2019. The honor recognizes leaders with a passion for making Knoxville and its surrounding areas better communities. Cory Hodge graduated from UT with a degree in Africana studies from UT in 2015. He works at Maynard Elementary teaching science and math to fourth graders.
On behalf of our faculty and staff in our Africana Studies program, I wish you a wonderful and courageous start of the new year, and we look forward to working with you in our continuing journey to discuss, research, and build knowledge about Africana Studies. With an eye towards revisiting our past, in order to prepare for our future, we celebrate 50+ years of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
TOGETHER, WE stand, TOGETHER!
In the pursuit of knowledge and excellence,
SHAYLA C. NUNNALLY
Professor, Department of Political Science
Chair, Africana Studies Program