Black
Lives
matter

AAAS unequivocally and unapologetically maintains that Black Lives Matter. This statement of fact precedes yet includes ideological and political intervention in response to antiblack racial oppression. We understand the meaning and fullness of Black life to be irreducible to Black genocide and state violence. We are more than what happened/s to us. Following the Black feminist wisdom of Audre Lorde, we are who we say we are and wholeheartedly committed to the work that is distinctively ours to do.
Futuristic, space-like, collage art of a black woman
Stacey Robinson ‘Cosmic Listening’ Digital Collage, 2016

MAKING THE REVOLUTION IRRESISTIBLE

The Department of African American and African Studies is truly invested in how we can do higher education differently. We focus on Black feminisms, Black genders, and Black sexuality studies addressing important and often underexplored aspects of Black Studies. We work to cultivate imagination, which gives students tools to actually see, feel, and experience the world as it ought to be, as they want it to be, not how it is.

Sonic Introductions

In AAAS, we know you want an education that recognizes you as a whole person with brilliant ideas, creative vision, and a desire to remain connected to the people who support your growth. In order to achieve these goals, music helps us all to survive, thrive, inspire, move, remember, and feel. Sound and feeling music can be great sources of knowledge, motivators for study, and energies for living.

The problem is schooling often drains us oour spirit and creative energy by promoting a life of the mind detached from heart and all that our hands can make. In AAAS, we are scholars, artists, activists, and cultural workers who appreciate a good sound. That’s why we created these sonic introductions.

Here’s how it works:
Press play, listen deeply, and enjoy the music and sounds that reflect our love of self, community, and AAAS!
 

Ruth Nicole Brown​

phd

Chairperson

Suban Nur Cooley

phd

Assistant Professor

LeConté Dill

DrPH

Associate Professor

Olivia Furman

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Post-Doc/Research Associate

Natasha N. Jones

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Associate Professor

Chamara Jewel Kwakye

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Assistant Professor

Sheri Lewis

phd

Assistant Professor

Yvonne Morris

phd

Academic Specialist

Gianina K.L. Strother

Assistant Professor

Renée Wilmot

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Assistant Professor

Audio curation and mixing by Blair E. Smith, PHD
Interested in following these sounds? 

(sounds sourced)

Our AAAS Bookshelf

Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy

2020

April Baker-Bell
AAAS Transition Team Member

“Speaking for Ourselves: Reclaiming, Redesigning, and Reimagining Research on Black Women’s Health”

2018

LeConté Dill

Black Female Sexualities

2015

Trimiko Melancon

Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation

2014

Trimiko Melancon

Hear Our Truths: The Creative Potential of Black Girlhood

2013

Ruth Nicole Brown

Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy

2009

Ruth Nicole Brown

Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) is a space to celebrate Black girlhood in all of its complexity with Black girls and those who love and support us. In SOLHOT we dance, sing, discuss important issues, create art, and organize together to improve the communities of which we are a part. We do what needs to be done. The process of doing SOLHOT involves being together and deciding what our work will be based on the gifts, talents, and ideas of those who show up. More than anything we value Black girls’ lives and create spaces to affirm Black girl genius. 

Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) is a space to celebrate Black girlhood in all of its complexity with Black girls and those who love and support us. In SOLHOT we dance, sing, discuss important issues, create art, and organize together to improve the communities of which we are a part. We do what needs to be done. The process of doing SOLHOT involves being together and deciding what our work will be based on the gifts, talents, and ideas of those who show up. More than anything we value Black girls’ lives and create spaces to affirm Black girl genius. 

The mission of The Feminist Wire is to provide socio-political and cultural critique of anti-feminist, racist, and imperialist politics pervasive in all forms and spaces of private and public lives of individuals globally. Of particular critical interest to us are social and political phenomena that block, negate, or limit the satisfaction of goods or ends that humans, especially the most vulnerable, minimally require for living free of structural violence. The Feminist Wire seeks to valorize and sustain pro-feminist representations and create alternative frameworks to build a just and equitable society.

featured News

Lomax_Featured

Taking Up Space as a Scholar, Activist, and Visionary Co-Builder of the New AAAS Department

Scholar, author, activist, and visionary builder, these are just a few words to describe Tamura Lomax, Foundational Associate Professor, who came to Michigan State University to work alongside Ruth Nicole Brown, Inaugural Chair.

MSU African American and African Studies Seeks ‘Technologies of Living for Survival Into Wellness’

On this segment of MSU Today, we explore the vision, mission and values of Michigan State University’s Department of African American and African Studies.

Collectively Building Anew: the Department of African American and African Studies

As we distance ourselves to help stop the spread of a deadly virus, a new department is being built within Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters — the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS).

EVENTS

Ruth Nicole Brown​

phd

Faculty

Tamura Lomax

phd

Faculty

April Baker Bell​

phd

Faculty

Ruth Nicole Brown​

phd

Faculty

Tamura Lomax

phd

Faculty

April Baker Bell​

phd

Faculty