Stony Brook University Africana Studies Department

08/29/2026

The energy was REAL at the SBU Block Party! 🎉🌍🖤

A huge thank you to our incredible Africana Studies students and faculty who showed up, showed out, and represented the department with pride. From connecting with new and returning students to sharing information about our courses, programs, and community, our table was alive with conversation and Africana spirit.

Special appreciation to our SBU Africana Studies Society students for being outstanding ambassadors for Africana Studies. This is what building community looks like—students and faculty working together to make Africana Studies visible, welcoming, and accessible across campus.

Here’s to an exciting new academic year! Stop by, take a class, get involved, and discover what Africana Studies has to offer. ✊🏾📚🌍

Africana Studies is for everyone.

08/27/2026

I was one of the few Black scholars at both institutions. I understand—and loathe—how their tendency to undermine the suffering of Black people led to Jason Arday’s demise.

But the lesson of Arday’s death is not that he was some lone fraudster who sneaked into a professorship at Cambridge; it is that Black people in high positions are expected and demanded to be infallible. Any mistake will be seized upon and used to attack not just them but all Black people in these elite white spaces. In this schema, Arday stands in for all Black academia. He must either be a villain deserving of international disgrace or otherwise extolled as a blameless saint, his memory paraded as a mascot for racist victimization that only obscures discussion of the social forces that triggered this attack in the first place. Both racist and unjust binaries that stop us, ultimately from viewing him in the fullness of his humanity. Read more from Gazelle Mba:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/oxford-and-cambridge-have-always-been-racist-arday/

08/13/2026

📸 AFRICANA STUDIES ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT | CAROUSEL RECAP 🎶

Swipe through for a look at Bay Shore Presents: Under the Big Tent, a community celebration held on July 25 in Bay Shore!

We are especially proud to highlight Mary Seymour of the legendary band MUSIQUE, one of our distinguished Africana Studies graduates, as she continues to share her musical talent beyond the classroom. Mary Seymour performed as part of an afternoon filled with music, dance, creativity, food, and fellowship, joining the Bay Shore High School Dancers and a vibrant lineup of local artists and community performers.

Moments like these reflect the ongoing impact of our alumni and the ways Africana Studies continues to shape creative expression, cultural engagement, and community connection long after graduation.

Congratulations to Mary Seymour and all the performers who made Under the Big Tent a powerful celebration of culture and artistry! 👏🏿🎶

SWIPE ➡️ to see moments from the day.

08/06/2026

Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary, built on the site of a former slave plantation and still operated as a working prison farm, has become one of the most visible symbols of that debate. Lawsuits and investigative reports have challenged conditions on the prison’s “farm line,” where incarcerated workers have described dangerous labor, extremely low pay, and practices they argue echo the plantation era.

Whether one agrees with describing Angola as a “modern slave plantation” or prefers different language, its history forces us to confront difficult questions about race, labor, punishment, and justice. Understanding this legacy is essential for anyone studying African American history, constitutional law, or the ongoing struggle for human rights.

07/28/2026

Gov. Kathy Hochul is directing SUNY and CUNY to offer expedited admissions reviews for students displaced after Howard University canceled admission for 502 first-year students over unmet tuition deadlines.

Participating campuses will pull from remaining Fall 2026 seats.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4pHfbi1

07/24/2026

The future 🗣️

Join us for a Scholarship Luncheon, Saturday, August 1, 2026. https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/scholarship-breakfast-fundraiser

07/16/2026

The Forgotten History of Irish “White Slaves” in the Caribbean 🇮🇪

Many thousands of dispossessed Catholic Irish men, women, and children were transported — willingly or unwillingly — to work on sugar and to***co plantations in Barbados, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands. Irish people first arrived to the islands in 1632

Irish servants were forced to work in field gangs alongside African slaves under the scorching sun, often without stockings or proper clothing.

They were mocked by the enslaved Africans and branded with the epithet of “white slaves.”

This brutal chapter of Irish history under British rule is rarely taught or acknowledged today.

The suffering of Irish indentured servants has been largely erased from mainstream history books. 👀

Why is this part of history so conveniently forgotten?

07/12/2026

🚨WARNING | DISTRESSING CONTENT

PBS NEWS

Russian Invasion

Russia lures African soldiers to deadly front in Ukraine

04/29/2026

with .repost
・・・
I had the pleasure of representing not only the Bethune-Cookman University Archives at Stony Brook University Africana Studies’ Retrospective honoring Dr. Annie Mae Walker but also Black Archives in general. Dr. Walker began her educational journey as a kindergartner at Mary McLeod Bethune’s Daytona Normal and industrial School. With some starts and stops, she matriculated from elementary to junior high and graduated high school in 1935. She returned and graduated summa cm laude from Bethune-Cookman College in 1944 with a degree in elementary education. She later taught fourth grade at Keyser Lab School on the campus. She would go on to garner graduate degrees from Adelphi University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she founded the Black Studies program. After retiring, she returned to Daytona Beach and taught at her alma mater and eventually Daytona State. She was a polygot who began piano lessons at age 79. Her life is one wondrous experience after another. To read more, pick up Dr. Lynn Hawkins’ Always the First. Dr. Walker touched the lives of many who continue to sing her praises and acknowledge the role she played in their journeys. I am grateful for whatever part the Archives played in gathering artifacts to continue the story of her life and its impact. It was a timely tribute to a history making woman who credits her time learning from Mrs. Bethune as life altering. bethunecookman