African American Studies at Princeton University
African American Studies at Princeton University is a monthly podcast conversation about the books and ideas animating the field of African American Studies in the 21st Century and the political, economic, and cultural forces that shape our understanding of race and racial groups. We invite you to listen as we “read” how race and culture are produced globally – looking past outcomes to beginnings, questioning dominant discourses, and considering evidence instead of myth. The podcast is recorded and produced at Princeton University in the Department of African American Studies. Visit aas.princeton.edu for more information.
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A Black Gaze
06/16/2022
A Black Gaze
How do we look at, and respond to, work by Black contemporary artists? In this episode, we sat down with Tina Campt, Visiting Professor in Art & Archaeology and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton. We trace the arc of Prof. Campt’s career, from her earlier research on family photography in the African diaspora and how one can “listen to images,” all the way to her current writing and recent trip to this year’s Venice Biennale. Along the way, we discuss concepts that elucidate the aesthetic, political, and experiential dynamics of work by artists like Jennifer Packer, Cameron Rowland, Stan Douglas, and Simone Leigh. Deep Dive: How to “listen” to a photograph Tina M. Campt, (Duke University Press, 2017). Tina M. Campt, (MIT Press, 2021). The Breakdown - Guest Info (Photo credit: ) Tina M. Campt () Professor Campt taught a multidisciplinary seminar called “Radical Composition” as a Visiting Professor at Princeton for the Spring 2022 semester. She is the Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, and heads the Black Visualities Initiative at Brown’s Cogut Institute for Humanities. In addition to the five books she has authored and edited, such as Listening to Images and A Black Gaze, Professor Campt is the lead convener of the Practicing Refusal Collective and the Sojourner Project. See, Hear, Do “Radical Composition” course materials: Saidiya Hartman, "." Small Axe 12, no. 2 (2008): 1-14. Flying Lotus, “,” dir. Kahlil Joseph (2012). Carrie Mae Weems, “” (2016). Jay-Z, “,” dir. Arthur Jafa (2017). Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, (First Print Press, 2018). Practicing Refusal Collective, (ongoing). Whitney Museum of American Art, “” (2022). Taylor DaFoe, “,” artnet news (March 29, 2022). Simone Leigh, , Official U.S. Presentation, 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, April 23–November 27, 2022. National Gallery of Art, , April 10–July 17, 2022. Tina M. Campt, fourth lecture in the series Image Complex: Art, Visuality & Power, University of Sydney (online lecture, October 19th, 2022, register ).
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A Painter’s Eye
04/08/2022
A Painter’s Eye
Princeton AAS Podcast S2 E07 A Painter’s Eye In this episode, we sit down with the legendary historian and artist Nell Painter to discuss her career and its connections to Black Studies. From reckoning with historical figures as individuals, to her life and work at Princeton, to her own works-in-progress, this podcast has something for everyone. Our hosts dive deep into Painter’s legacy and the lessons she has for our present moment. The Culture of __ “,” PBS NewsHour, July 23, 2018 “,” GBH Forum Network, July 31, 2018 The Breakdown - Guest Info Nell Irvin Painter () Nell Irvin Painter is Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita at Princeton University. She was Director of Princeton's Program in African-American Studies from 1997 to 2000. In addition to her doctorate in history from Harvard University, she has received honorary doctorates from Wesleyan, Dartmouth, SUNY-New Paltz, and Yale. Prof. Painter has published numerous books, articles, reviews, and other essays, including The History of White People. She has served on numerous editorial boards and as an officer of many different professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Antiquarian Society, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and the Association of Black Women Historians. Nell Painter (the painter formerly known as the historian Nell Irvin Painter) lives and works in Newark, New Jersey. Her work carries discursive as well as visual meaning, and is made in a manual and digital process. Using found images and digital manipulation, she reconfigures the past and self-revision through self-portraits. After a life of historical truth and political engagement with American society, her artwork represents freedom, including the freedom to be totally self-centered. See, Hear, Do “” Princeton University Department of African American Studies, March 28, 2022 Nell Irvin Painter, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021 [2002]) Nell Painter, “,” James Fuentes Gallery, 2020 “,” Museum of Fine Arts Boston, November 15, 2021 “,” American Council of Learned Societies Annual Meeting, Friday, April 29, 2022 @ 6:00 PM EST (registration in link)
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Science Fictions: Race, Biology, and Superhumanity
03/04/2022
Science Fictions: Race, Biology, and Superhumanity
On this podcast, we have addressed different dimensions of scientific racism from COVID-19 disparity data to the uses of human remains in anthropology. The Culture of... Jacque Smith and Cassie Spodak, “,” CNN, June 7, 2021 Ezra Turner, “” Teen Vogue, July 16, 2021 The Breakdown - Guest Info (Photo credit: Becca Skinner / ) Shane Campbell-Staton () Shane Campbell-Staton is an Assistant Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He comes to us from UCLA where he was jointly appointed in the Institute for Society and Genetics. His research group focuses on evolution in the Anthropocene, studying animal performance, gene expression and genomics to understand the lasting biological impacts of our human footprint. In addition to his scientific work, Shane hosts the popular podcast “,” with Arien Darby. (Photo credit: Princeton University) Ayah Nuriddin () Ayah Nuriddin is a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in Princeton’s Society of Fellows, as well as a lecturer in the Council of Humanities and African American Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University. Ayah’s work shows how African Americans have navigated questions of racial science, eugenics, and hereditarianism in relation to struggles for racial justice since the nineteenth century. She is also interested in how race and scientific racism shape discourses and activism around health inequality. Ayah is working on a book manuscript, “Seed and Soil: Black Eugenic Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” and teaches courses at Princeton like “Beyond Tuskegee: Race and Human Subjects Research in US History.” See, Hear, Do Shane Cambpell-Staton and Arien Darby, Ayah Nuriddin, “African Americans and Eugenics,” C-SPAN American History TV, January 5, 2018 Terence Keel, (Stanford University Press, 2018) PBS: American Experience, , October 16, 2018 Alexander Glustrom, (Fire River Films, 2020)
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Reactivating Memory
11/15/2021
Reactivating Memory
Two events in 1921—more than a thousand miles apart—had a profound impact on African American history: the production of the all-Black musical Shuffle Along and the Tulsa race massacre.
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University Reckonings
09/10/2021
University Reckonings
Over the past decade, historians have probed the relationship between higher education and slavery through innovative public-facing projects that raise important questions. How are scholars and students today working to hold universities accountable for past and present injustices? As campuses buzz back to life, our hosts discuss the legacy of universities and slavery with up-and-coming scholars in Black Studies: R. Isabela Morales, Charlesa Redmond, and Ezelle Sanford, III.
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Juneteenth: Past, Present, and Future
06/17/2021
Juneteenth: Past, Present, and Future
When we talk about Juneteenth, sometimes called America's second Independence Day, what exactly are we talking about? How has the end of slavery been celebrated across time in Black communities? What political obligations does its commemoration bring to the fore? Join our hosts, Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig, as they talk with Professor Joshua B. Guild about the past, present, and future of Juneteenth.
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Black Foodways and Food Justice
04/19/2021
Black Foodways and Food Justice
Our second episode looks at the culture and politics of Black foodways, from the ways in which Black women have used food to create traditions and claim power to the contemporary politics of nutrition, stereotypes, and food shaming. Beyond the platitude that food unites us all, Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig explore the diversity of ways in which food is a site where identities are constructed and contested.
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COVID-19 in Black America
02/19/2021
COVID-19 in Black America
In our inaugural new episode, Ebun and Mae take a deep dive into questions about the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. From cultural responses to lockdown and the need for a government response to creating a more just and inclusive public health system, our host break down multiple dimensions of the pandemic and point toward some resources to learn more.
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How Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah Is Revolutionizing The Genre Of Jazz
10/17/2019
How Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah Is Revolutionizing The Genre Of Jazz
Recent Certificate recipient, , Ph.D. sits down with American Jazz Trumpeter, , to discuss his inspirations, his creative process, and the importance of musically challenging himself. Christian, also known as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, is an architect of concepts. His signature Stretch Music, a genre-blind form, allows him to create sonic landscapes across multiple forms of sound, language, thought, and culture. At once, Trap, Alt Rock, World Music. Stretch Music is, as its creator, a collision of ideas and identities. Growing up as an heir to a Legendary Afro-New Orleanian Chieftain amidst the complexities of a racially and economically conflicted New Orleans, Adjuah’s work reflects his sensibilities: analytic, expansive and unafraid to confront the social and political realities of our time head-on. Please note that the following content contains strong langauge. Parental advisory is advised
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The Journey From Solitary To Activism
10/01/2019
The Journey From Solitary To Activism
Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. sits down with Assistant Professor Autumn Womack to explore the process of developing a book; Professor Joshua Guild speaks with activist and author Albert Woodfox
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Legacy and Racialized Politics
09/06/2019
Legacy and Racialized Politics
In Ep.17, Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry examine the NYT's 1619 Project and discuss her new book Breathe: A Letter to My Sons. Later, Glaude and Julian Zelizer discuss the historical cycle of racialized politics displayed by President Trump.
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16 - Black Bodies, White Gold
04/29/2019
16 - Black Bodies, White Gold
In this episode, Eddie Glaude discusses with Professor Anna Arabindan-Kesson her application of research on textiles, music, and photography for her upcoming book Black Bodies White Gold. Professor Kesson, an Art Historian at heart, reveals the history and nuances of blacks and cotton and the turbulent history across America and Europe.
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15 - The Influence of Ancient Ethiopia
03/12/2019
15 - The Influence of Ancient Ethiopia
Eddie Glaude sits down with Professor Wendy Belcher to discuss her recent work around ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
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Inspiring Change in Trump's America
01/29/2019
Inspiring Change in Trump's America
Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. and Associate Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discuss and review the political climate of America in 2018.
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Black Pulp Fiction’s Uncanny Origins
07/10/2018
Black Pulp Fiction’s Uncanny Origins
In this episode of the AAS 21 Podcast, Professor Kinohi Nishikawa comes to the table with Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. to discuss black pulp fiction, and taking seriously “lower” forms of literature in the college classroom, and beyond. Nishikawa’s forthcoming book, Street Players: Black Pulp Fiction and the Making of a Literary Underground is expected out November 2018 (University of Chicago Press). In particular, the book traces the many titles published by Holloway House from the late 1960’s to the imprint’s close in 2008. This fascinating discussion is deep dive into questions about genre, different communities of readers, and how modern literature, and its handling of complex topics, touches other art forms. Professor Nishikawa and Professor Glaude also discuss Nishikawa’s other major work-in-progress, Blueprints for Black Writing: African American Literature and Book Design, which considers the important yet overlooked role book design (e.g., typography, paper quality, cover art) has played in shaping modern African American literature.
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Reimagining Science and Technology
03/28/2018
Reimagining Science and Technology
In this episode of the AAS 21 podcast, Professor Ruha Benjamin and Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. discuss science and technology, the allure of objectivity related to this category of work, and consider what it takes to proceed in a “third” way.
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The Making of the Modern Black Diaspora
02/19/2018
The Making of the Modern Black Diaspora
Professor Joshua Guild joins the conversation in this episode of the AAS 21 Podcast. Professor Guild is an associate professor of History and African American Studies at Princeton specializing in twentieth-century African American social and cultural history, urban history, and the making of the modern African diaspora. Professor Guild discussed two works, In the Shadows of the Metropolis: Cultural Politics and Black Communities in Postwar New York and London (Oxford University Press)and The City Lives in You: The Black Freedom Struggle and the Futures of New Orleans. This wide-ranging conversation tracks how black New York, black London, and black New Orleans came into being through a comparative, but relational analysis.
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The Pulse of Black Life in the Long 19th Century
12/15/2017
The Pulse of Black Life in the Long 19th Century
In this episode of the AAS 21 podcast, Professor Glaude speaks with new colleague Autumn Womack about several projects she has in the works. Womack joined the faculty at Princeton this year as an assistant professor in departments of African American Studies and English. Womack specializes in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American literature, with a particular research and teaching focus on the intersection of visual technology, race, and literary culture. Womack’s forthcoming book is called Reform Divisions: Race, Visuality and Literature in the Progressive Era.
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Rethinking Empire and Democracy
11/06/2017
Rethinking Empire and Democracy
The AAS 21 Podcast is back for the first podcast of the 2017-2018 academic year. Professor Glaude speaks to his colleague, Reena N. Goldthree, about her current research into nationalism, migration and gender in Latin America and the Caribbean. Professor Goldthree is the new specialist of Afro-Atlantic histories in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton. Goldthree’s forthcoming book is called Democracy Shall be no Empty Romance: War and the Politics of Empire in the Greater Caribbean.
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The Formation of 'Religio-Racial' Identity
08/02/2017
The Formation of 'Religio-Racial' Identity
In this episode, Professor Glaude and Professor Judith Weisenfeld discuss the development of 'religio–racial' identity during the Great Migration.
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What Was African American Marriage?
06/08/2017
What Was African American Marriage?
What was marriage under slavery? Professor Tera W. Hunter’s new book, Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century provides an intimate glimpse of the affections and complexities of black marriage in the United States from its origins. In an illuminating conversation, Professor Tera Hunter and Professor Eddie Glaude discuss major takeaways from the book, key language introduced by Hunter, and various new understandings about African American marriage and family life from 1800 to the present day. A common assumption shared by liberal and conservative commentators alike is that low marriage rates in African American communities are a byproduct of slavery. However, Hunter’s research shows that marriage among African Americans, respected by law or not, was widely embraced in earlier times. From slavery to reconstruction, a desire to marry and build lives together factored centrally in the hearts and minds of African American men and women.After marriage was legalized following emancipation, black marriage rates started to eclipse white Americans’ by the turn of the twentieth century. Hunter suggests current declining marriage rates may best be attributed to advantages offered to some Americans, and denied to other Americans at specific, consequential junctures, such as in the wake of World War II. Bound in Wedlock is a groundbreaking book which, through an extensive archive, dismantles pathologies as it fascinates.
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Before Cornel West, After Cornel West
05/10/2017
Before Cornel West, After Cornel West
In episode six of AAS 21 podcast, Professor Glaude is joined by teacher and friend of 30 years, Dr. Cornel West. When it comes to habits of reading, West tells of staying in contact with the best of the past, feeling incomplete if he doesn’t accomplish his nightly three hours of study. West considers artists as the vanguard of the species, and more than enjoying great literature and writing as a spectator, West believes authors provide the blueprint a person needs to live their life as a work of art. Contemporary writers like Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Sheldon Wolin are only a sample of the 'post-Du Bois' intellectuals West knows can bring a world of depth to a person. But in many ways, with his consistent and constant embodiment of the three pillars of piety - remembrance, reverence, and resistance - the life of West is itself a new marker of time.
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An Insistence on Not Being Discouraged
04/06/2017
An Insistence on Not Being Discouraged
Modern, and contemporary criticism of African and African diasporic art is an area of inquiry that Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu insisted must exist. Professor Okeke-Agulu, along with others like Salah Hassan and Okwui Enwezor wrote into life a genre, and a lineage of artists who diagnose and critique African nation states and related projects. Okeke-Agulu is author of the recent Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria, which takes a broad view. His new work, Obiora Udechukwu: Line, Image, Text, takes a more narrow view, focusing on a former teacher who he names as the most influential Nigerian artist of the 20th century. Okeke-Agulu is currently at work on a book called Contemporary African Art in the Age of the Big Man, which tells the story of contemporary art after dictatorships, civil wars, IMS, and the devastation of African economies in the 1980s.
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A Through Line for African American Studies
03/01/2017
A Through Line for African American Studies
African American Studies is a field that shows how ‘this connects to that.’ In this conversation, Professor Glaude interviews his colleague Professor Imani Perry about her expansive, pathbreaking archive. Perry discusses her forthcoming book projects, ideas about methodology, and habits of reading. One book, May We Forever Stand, a cultural history of the black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” tells a story about black institutional life, ritual and loss. Another book, Vexy Thing: A Book on Gender, is an account of patriarchy, empire, conquest and - through a real commitment to feminist practice - liberation. Finally, Perry is at work about a book on the life of Lorraine Hansberry. Perry’s insight as a scholar trained in multiple disciplines reveals a valuable toolkit for those seeking to enter and make a difference in the academy. Glaude and Perry also discuss what they are reading and listening to today.
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Activism and Risk in the Face of Trump
12/08/2016
Activism and Risk in the Face of Trump
Destiny A. Crockett and Asanni A. York were thirteen year-olds when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. Crockett and York, who are good friends, are activists and student leaders in their last years at Princeton. York is a concentrator in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy earning a certificate in African American Studies and Crockett is a concentrator in the Department of English earning a certificate in African American Studies. The two join Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr., who has taught them both, for a conversation about what it has meant to them to mature politically during Obama’s presidency, their research and coursework in African American Studies, the organizing movement work they’ve done on campus and in the world, and how they are now imagining their activist futures in the context of President-Elect Donald Trump.
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Langston Hughes, Religious Thinker
11/02/2016
Langston Hughes, Religious Thinker
In the second episode of the AAS 21 podcast, Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. spoke with Wallace Best, Professor of Religion and African American Studies about his forthcoming book, Looking for Langston: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem. In the book, Professor Best encourages readers to read Langston Hughes religiously, and as a humanist in the tradition of American Religious Liberalism. Though Hughes was criticized, censored and even humiliated by other writers, and federal investigators, because of some of his more radical work like the poem ‘Goodbye Christ,’ Best contends that even through imagining a critical discourse with God, Hughes demonstrates an acknowledgement as to the existence of God. In fact, Hughes was a lover of gospel music and an avid churchgoer, never belonging to one church, but present in his own way in many, reflecting Hughes’ evasive way of being, a style Best describes as influenced by Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg. Best’s new work is the result of 12 years of archival research and “communing with Langston."
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Convergences and Dissonance: Movement and Elections
10/05/2016
Convergences and Dissonance: Movement and Elections
In the first podcast produced by the Princeton University Department of African American Studies, colleagues Eddie Glaude Jr., Imani Perry, Naomi Murakawa, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discuss, among other topics, contemporary American politics and the disaster called this election. The discussion moves from examining the political policy points put forward by Clinton and Trump to the political vision put forward by the Movement for Black Lives. The group also addresses the demands of mainstream media, considers how scholars and activists may understand their interaction with media, and discusses how scholars and activists may serve as bridges to one another. This podcast was recorded, edited, and published by the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Social Media Manager / Producer - Allison Bland Audio Engineer & Technical Specialist - Elio Lleo Music: Courtney Bryan
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