Stony Brook University Africana Studies Department

06/01/2026

🎓✨ Congratulations to the Africana Studies Class of 2026! ✨🎓

Today, we celebrate the remarkable achievements of our graduating students and honor the dedication, resilience, scholarship, and leadership they have demonstrated throughout their academic journeys.

On behalf of the faculty, staff, alumni, and supporters of the Department of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to:

🎓 Matthew Bediako
🎓 Jahsiah Burgess
🎓 Renee Darius
🎓 Meloseri Dumnoi
🎓 Destiny Gbor
🎓 Isabella Kutruf
🎓 Makayla Liverpool
🎓 Diana Moreno
🎓 Damilola Oseni
🎓 Kaiya Simpkins

As you move forward into new opportunities, may you continue to embody the spirit of critical inquiry, community engagement, social justice, and intellectual excellence that defines Africana Studies.

We are proud of all you have accomplished and excited to see the impact you will make in your professions, communities, and the world.

📸 Swipe through to celebrate our graduates and relive highlights from this year’s graduation ceremony!

🎓🖤❤️💚

05/28/2026

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Last month our Media & Marketing Director, Isabella Cain gave presentations in two classes at Stony Brook University, Black Power Movement and Prison Memoir & History Research.

Isabella explored the reality of writing while incarcerated, volunteer and internship opportunities, university partnerships, and censorship.

UBFSF Founder, Ivan Kilgore, was able to be patched in to the Prison Memoir class where he had a candid Q&A with students where he spoke about his life, career as a writer, and the impact that incarceration has on everyone’s lives. The students had previously had assignments where they analyzed Ivan’s memoir, Mayhem, Murder, and Magnificence (2020).

community

04/29/2026

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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

04/15/2026

In the shadow of empire, the Black body has too often been rendered object, spectacle, and site of projection.

This timely presentation revisits the enduring figure of the so-called “Hottentot Venus,” tracing how colonial logics of racialization and dehumanization continue to shape the lives and representations of Black immigrant women in contemporary France.

By situating these histories within a longer arc of anti-Blackness, this work challenges us to confront how the denial of humanity is reproduced across time, space, and discipline.

Join us as we engage these critical questions with Dr. Jacques Keubeung Fokou—Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies and affiliate faculty in Africana Studies—in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center.

📍 LACS Gallery, SBS 3rd Floor, Room N-320
🕧 12:30–1:45 PM
🍽 Lunch provided

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BlackFeminism FrancophoneStudies

04/11/2026

From Cameroon to the global literary stage 🌍📚

We celebrate Patrice Nganang whose powerful memoir Scale Boy has been recognized by as one of the Best Books of 2026 So Far.

Rooted in memory, history, and lived experience, Scale Boy traces a childhood shaped by colonial legacies while illuminating the intellectual and artistic awakening of a young African mind. This is not just a memoir—it is a meditation on history, humanity, and the weight of memory carried across generations.

At SBU Africana, we uplift scholarship and storytelling that challenge, preserve, and reimagine the African and diasporic experience. Nganang’s work reminds us: our stories are archives, our voices are instruments, and our histories demand to be told.

04/09/2026

Haiti’s current political crisis cannot be understood outside of history. 🇭🇹

Following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the country has faced a prolonged power vacuum, escalating violence, and competing claims to authority—amid ongoing foreign intervention and influence.

For Africana Studies, Haiti remains essential: a site where questions of sovereignty, democracy, and global power converge in real time.

Decolonization

04/09/2026

A legacy revisited, a foundation remembered.

Join us for “A Retrospective for Dr. Annie Mae Walker,” founding chair of Black Studies at Stony Brook (1969), whose leadership helped shape the intellectual and institutional foundations of Africana Studies.

From archival traces to living memory, this gathering invites us to reflect on the vision, labor, and struggle required to build Black Studies—then and now.

📍 UNITI Cultural Center ()
🗓 Thursday, April 16, 2026
⏰ 10AM–2PM

In partnership with

04/07/2026

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Stony Brook, I’ll see you tonight. Join me at 5:30PM at Stony Brook University for a Worse Than a Lie Q and A and book signing, emceed by Unity Watts Bailey and moderated by Ric McClendon.

04/07/2026

Today!

Join us for An Evening With Civil Rights Lawyer Benjamin Crump and hear about the inspiration behind his new legal thriller novel, “Worse Than a Lie,” followed by an audience Q&A and a book signing.

Tuesday, April 7 | 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Student Activities Center, Ballroom A

Sign up: bit.ly/4dLCGT4

11/06/2025

Yesterday, Zohran Mamdani, a proud Africana Studies graduate, was elected Mayor of New York City — becoming the first Muslim, first South Asian, and one of the youngest mayors in NYC history. 🌍👏🏾

Born in Uganda and raised in Queens, Mamdani’s story is a powerful reminder of what you can do with a degree in Africana/African American Studies — lead, serve, and transform communities.

From the classroom to City Hall — Africana Studies shapes leaders who change the world. 🖤📚✊🏾