Invitation: Take a deep breath–our breath is our first song. Continue to breathe deeply as you read on.
Imagine that you are being invited to convene with other wise souls. You all are surrounded by a cypher of supportive knowers and doers as guides.
Breathe. Continue to Know & Remember your own breath.
We invite you to collectively build trust and experience learning alongside AAAS faculty as your cypher of support. Here is where we hope that you can feel freer to release your limitations of self and authentically express your intellectual leadership and Black Studies “what-ifs.” Here is where we hope that you can dare to dream. To try on ideas. To experiment, play, and rehearse. To practice…and practice some more. To rest, write, and explore ways in which your art and your scholarship and your art-as-scholarship may expand.
If such a community, space, and practice appeal to you, please read on.
The AAAS Department’s application deadline for enrollment in Fall 2026 is December 1, 2025. Admission is for the following fall semester; we do not accept applicants for spring admission. In solidarity with disruptors to hegemonic systems worldwide, and in our ongoing efforts to radically transform graduate education, we urge all applicants to “never submit!”…but to offer the following materials for our consideration:
- An online application.
- A resume or curriculum vitae (CV).
- A statement of academic purpose, written (no more that three single-spaced pages) or audio (no more that 7 minutes), stating:
- Some of your experiences, understandings, communities, and/or commitments that you are bringing with you along this part of your educational journey;
- Some of your personal and professional goals;
- Your intellectual interests in AAAS, desired concentration of study, and the kind(s) of research that you hope to engage here; and
- at least three AAAS faculty with whom you would like to work closely and why. Consider and offer what you might need from faculty mentors and what faculty mentors can expect from you.
- A writing sample (typically a recent research paper or substantial piece of professional writing), or a sample of creative work that demonstrates your research, analytical, writing, and creative abilities, interests, and possibilities.
- If written: no more than 20 pages; if audio: no more than 10 minutes; if images: no more than 20.
- Two copies of official transcripts demonstrating an earned Bachelor’s degree in an area of study appropriate for advanced work in AAAS.
- Contact information for three people acquainted with your coursework, professional experience, and/or community work. These people will automatically receive a link with information on how to upload their letters of recommendation to the system. Be sure to create your profile well in advance of the December 1st deadline, so that your recommenders can send their letters before that deadline, as well.
The Department does not require the submission of Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) scores. However, international applicants should refer to the Graduate School’s requirements for international applicants to graduate programs.
Please direct general inquiries or questions about the graduate programs to Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. LeConté Dill: LDill@msu.edu
Please direct questions regarding the receipt or status of your application materials or application system questions to Academic Operations Team Member, LouAnne Snider: sniderL2@msu.edu