New Year & New Beginning: The Department of Africana Studies
We began celebrating the “50+ Year Anniversary” of the Africana studies program in spring 2021 and featured past directors and former and current students. We highlighted the history, strength, and visions of the past directors and their contributions to our program. We also welcomed presentations and discussions with renowned, mixed-media artist, Joe Sam and Oscar-award-winning costume designer, Ruth E. Carter, who is known for her most recent work in Coming 2 America. The UT Department of Theatre and the Clarence Brown Theatre co-sponsored these events.
We also hosted Ron McCurdy from the University of Southern California, who performed Langston Hughes’ “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods of Jazz,” with the Langston Hughes Project. Jessica Johnson discussed the book, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World.
We co-sponsored programs in honor of Frederick Douglass Day with colleagues in the Department of English; lectures featuring Abou-Bakar Mamah’s discussion of post-democracy in sub-Saharan Africa with colleagues in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures. Koritha Mitchell conducted a workshop on responsible teaching in violent times. With our colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies, we featured the civil rights activism and journey of John Hodges, past chair of Africana Studies. We hosted panel discussions featuring several activists and scholars, who centered social justice issues, activism, and scholarship on the “carceral state” and criminalization in the Appalachian South, with other co-sponsors from the UT Departments of History and Sociology, and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Program. Finally, we participated in the Critical Race Collective’s Symposium on the impact of systemic racism and COVID-19 on higher education.
The celebration will continue as a two-year, commemoration in a virtual and in-person fête. We hope you will be able to join us for events this spring.
In other good news, Carolyn R. Hodges, former chair of Africana studies (2016-2019) and vice provost and dean emerita of the UT Graduate School, has committed to establishing the Dr. Carolyn R. Hodges and Dr. Amadou B. Sall Travel Endowment to support students participating in the Africana studies study abroad program. Hodges established the endowment to help support and enhance Africana studies, as well as honor the dedicated work of Amadou Sall, who initiated study abroad programs in Africana studies and who has led numerous study trips to Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa, since 2005. Sall’s excursive programs engage students in language learning, classes on African history and culture, and service learning. For more information or ways to donate to the Hodges-Sall Travel Endowment, visit us at africana.utk.edu.
We also have been closing the end of the 2021-2022 academic year, with the excitement of preparing for departmental status by hiring new faculty and planning for an inaugural leadership and civic engagement summer academy for rising high school students in the Knoxville area, in collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Engagement and Project Grad Knoxville.
Most importantly, with May being an exhilarating time of graduation, we invite all to join us in celebrating and recognizing our outstanding graduates. We congratulate our Class of 2021 Africana Studies major and minors and honor the achievement of Africana Studies major, Adanze Nwokochah, who is our 2021 Outstanding Graduate in Africana Studies with the College of Arts and Sciences.
Thank you for your support of our department.
Sincerely,
Shayla C. Nunnally Violette
Professor and Head
UT Department of Africana Studies