Dr. Austin and Dr. Grundy receive tenure

Congratulations to Dr. Austin & Dr. Grundy on their recent promotions to tenured associate professor! Dr. Paula Austin is an Associate Professor of History and African American & Black Diaspora Studies. Dr. Saida Grundy is an Associate Professor of Sociology and African American & Black Diaspora Studies.

Course Spotlight: CFA MA 430: R&B, Motown, and Classic Funk

CFA MA 430: R&B, Motown, and Classic Funk: Soundtracks of Empowerment and Civil Rights Instructor: Victor Coelho Summer 2 (July 6 – August 15) B1 Tues/Thurs. 1 – 4:30 PM Location: FLR 206 Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Motown, Soul, and Funk are seminal in the development of rap, hip-hop, fusion, and contemporary urban and R&B […]

Course Spotlight: CFA MH561 with Dr. Birenbaum Quintero

Associate Professor of Music, Chair of Musicology & Ethnomusicology Department, and affiliated faculty member of AFAMBDS Professor Michael Birenbaum Quintero will be teaching CFA MH561: World Music Ensemble (1 credit) this fall. Learn to perform traditional world music in the context of an ensemble taught by specialists of African, Balinese, Latin American, and many other […]

Upcoming Event: Race, Prison, Justice Arts Spring 2023 gallery

Tuesday, May, 2 at 4 PM, Race, Prison, Justice Arts is hosting a series of artistic reflections and performances in response to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists through direct engagement, conversation, and collaboration! It will be located in the College of Fine Arts Room 106, 855 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 The Race, Prison, Justice […]

This Friday: AFAMBDS Block Party

Spring is here, which means it’s time to celebrate the end of another successful academic year! Join us on Friday, April 28th, from 4 pm – 7 pm at the African American & Black Diaspora Studies Building (138 Mountfort St, Brookline, MA 02446). There will be music by DJ Troy Frost, soul food from Darryl’s […]

AFAMBDS Student Employee Charlot Valerio featured in CAS Q&A

  Charlot Valerio (CAS’26) was recently interviewed by CAS for a Q&A titled “Diaspora Chats Panel Explores Racial Identity.” In the Q&A, Charlot discusses our program’s recent student-led forum Diaspora Chats. Hosted on Thursday, April 20, 2023, Diaspora Chats was a student-faculty discussion on identity within the Black Diaspora, aiming to challenge conventional ideas surrounding the […]

Fall 2023 Course Spotlight: CAS AA400 – Slavery and the In-Between

Slavery and the In-Between with Professor Andree Cunningham Tues/Thurs 3:30 – 4:45 PM This course examines the space between freedom and enslavement known as recaptivity. Course discussions will focus on historical and social conceptions of freedom, and how these conceptions relate to recaptive status. We will review recaptivity contexts documented in both the historical and […]

Dr. John Thornton quoted in Boston Globe article

Dr. John Thornton, professor of History and AABDS at BU, was recently quoted in a Boston Globe article, A look into how AP African-American Studies is taught at a Cambridge school. “The misunderstanding that we have in Florida is that somehow this course is going to be an indoctrination and Critical Race Theory is going to […]