Africana Studies at William & Mary

09/27/2022

01/19/2022

Hermine Pinson of Africana Studies remembers Sidney Poitier the Bahamian-American actor, film director, and diplomat.

11/02/2021

Join us!

10/12/2021

“Hermine Pinson has been influenced by the work of many poets, authors, musicians and artists throughout her lifetime, starting with her childhood in the segregated Deep South to her almost three decades as a professor at William & Mary. Pinson will explore some of these pieces of work, and some of her own, in the fall 2021 Tack Faculty Lecture, “To Make a Poet Black: Navigating a Blues Sensibility,” on October 28 at 7 p.m. at the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium.”

05/08/2021

Please support our wonderful colleagues!

04/27/2021

The Jacquelyn Y. McLendon Prize in Africana Studies is so named after the Founding Director of Black Studies at William & Mary, which later merged with African Studies to form Africana Studies. The award honors Professor McLendon for her indefatigable leadership, distinguished career and innovative administration that paved the way for Black Studies here at the College. Recipients demonstrate academic and leadership excellence as well as dedication to the Program of Africana Studies.

The recipients of the McLendon Prize in Africana Studies reflect the level of excellence espoused by its inspiration. The 2021 Award is conferred by the faculty of Africana Studies to Ashley M. Casey (“Casey”) ’21 (Biology and Africana Studies) because we believe they demonstrate academic and leadership excellence as well as dedication to the program.

10/20/2020

See our very own, Dr. Chinua Thelwell!

Dr. Chinua Akimaro Thelwell has always found college classrooms to be one of the “few spaces in American society where people could have honest and informed conversations around race and racism.”

08/16/2020

Now introducing our next cast member...

Hermine Pinson!

Hermine Pinson has published three poetry collections and two CD’s, one in special collaboration with Pulitzer-prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. She has performed her poetry in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Pinson’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. She is the Margaret Hamilton Professor of English & Africana Studies at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

Aguas Arts Ink happily welcomes Hermine Pinson to the cast of
SONGS OF FREEDOM: CONCERT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
August 28th / 7PM (est)

For more information about tickets/donations, check out aguasartsink.com.

Look out for more introductions!

06/28/2020

Congratulations to our own, Dr. Chinua Thelwell!

Chinua Thelwell discusses his new book "Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond” and continuing efforts to remove blackface imagery from American culture.

04/08/2020

Congratulations Dr. Vinson on your new appointment! You have a wonderful record of achievement at W&M and will be deeply missed by Africana faculty, staff, and students. We wish you well!

The members of the Executive Board of the Association for the Study of Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) congratulate Professor Robert Vinson, President of ASWAD, for his appointment as Professor of African American and African Studies at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Vinson is currently the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of History and Africana Studies in the Department of History of College of William and Mary. Among others he is the author of The Americans Are Coming!: Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa and Albert Luthuli, both published with Ohio University Press. He is currently the President of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora. Congratulations Professor Vinson!