Boston University

African Studies

Photo: A collage of four images: Top left, two hands holding shreds of micro plastics, bottom left an image shot from the moon, top right a stock image of burning candles, and bottom right, a figure statue head

Research

Best of The Brink 2025: A Selection of BU’s 10 Most-Read, Liked, and Shared Science and Research Stories

December 16, 2025

Photo: A girl in a leather jacket smiling in front of textiles

Art History

From Wedding Attire to Living Room Curtains: A BU Scholar Is Unraveling the History of Brocade Weaving in Morocco

May 31, 2025

Photo: A Mother and her daughter view African Textiles in a display case.

Arts & Culture

Textiles Tell Stories Highlights BU Libraries African Textiles Collection

April 11, 2025

Research

Best of The Brink 2024: 10 Inspiring Inventions and Discoveries—All from BU Researchers

December 13, 2024

Photo: A picture of Andreana (Andree) Cunningham, a CAS assistant professor of archaeology, standing in front of bookshelves that feature books as well as small skull and human body statues.

Bioarchaeology

The Histories of Enslaved People Were Written by Slavers. A BU Researcher Is Working to Change That

August 13, 2024

Photo: On the left, a picture of a dog wearing a red cone. On the right, a picture of a woman sitting on a chair and posing with a dog

Books

Pups Wearing Custom-Designed Veterinary Collars Get Star Treatment in Alum’s New Coffee-Table Book

August 7, 2024

Photo: Fallou Ngom, professor of anthropology, poses for a photo on November 22, 2022. A black man wearing a grey medium-brimmed hat, light pink collared shirt, and navy blue blazer, poses with hand on chin and a soft smile as he sits in a chair.

Linguistics & Language Sciences

Unearthing a Long-Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans

December 21, 2022

Photo of green and orange gliding tree frogs swarming on leaves against a black background.

Research in Photos

From Lovesick Frogs to Music-Making to Mouse Memories, Photo Contest Shows Stunning Breadth of BU Research

September 27, 2022

Photo of Louis Chude-Sokei, an older black man wearing a dark blur shirt and black shoes sits with hands folded in front of him on the steps of a brick building. A red sign on the building reads "Boston University College of Arts and Sciences; African American Studies Program"

New Major

African American and Black Diaspora Studies Is BU’s Newest Major

April 25, 2022

A photo of Sabelo Mhlambi speaking at a podium

Artificial Intelligence

Can an Ancient African Philosophy Save Us from AI Bias?

February 11, 2021

Composite image of book covers of the following books: Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid (1990), Aye, and Gomorrah, by Samuel R. Delany (1967), The Women, by Hilton Als (1996), Black No More, George S. Schuyler (1931), The Wine of Astonishment, by Earl Lovelace (1982, Corregidora, by Gayl Jones (1975)

Must-Reads by Black authors

For #BlackoutBestsellerList Movement, Six Must-Read Books

June 17, 2020

A photo of John Thornton and Linda Heywood

Research Accolades

Two BU Scholars of African American History Elected to AAAS

April 29, 2020

Fallou Ngom sits in the home of an Ajami manuscript owner in Belfort, Ziguinchor, Senegal.

Anthropology

Digitizing Ajami, a Centuries-Old African Script

January 23, 2020

Black Panther in his titular movie, fighting off helicopters

Film & TV

Afrofuturism in the Age of Black Panther

April 18, 2019

Jeffrey Geddes

Earth & Environment

CAS Prof Wins Nearly $1M to Study Interaction of Natural and Human Emissions

July 5, 2018

Louis Chude-Sokei

Science & Technology

Louis Chude-Sokei Wants African American Studies Program to Be a Central Place

April 26, 2018

Diversity

60 Seconds of Blackness

February 21, 2018

Timothy Longman with youth from Kabarondo, a village in the Eastern Province of Rwanda

Humanities

Telling the Truth about Rwanda

January 31, 2018

1) Fallou Ngom, a CAS professor of anthropology and director of the African Studies Center, with Amadou Ndiaye, an Ajami and Arabic bookseller in Saint-Louis, Senegal. Photo courtesy of Ablaye Diakité

Arts & Culture

Libraries and Archives Meet the Digital Age

October 5, 2017

Brian Woerner is equally at home offering a tasting at Follow The Honey in Cambridge or working with locals in Tanzania to help produce a sustainable supply of organic honey.

Business

A Global Taste of Honey for Questrom Grad Student

May 1, 2017

A Global Taste of Honey for Questrom Grad Student