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January 11, 2023

Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: An Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America by Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, available everywhere books are sold. THE MESSIANIC MOMENT, 1919–1931 The year 1919 marked the tercentennial of chattel slavery’s genesis in English North America. White supremacy may have warped notions of forgiveness, of forbearance, and of the significance of African bondage,… Continue Reading Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: An Excerpt

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Excerpts
June 20, 2022

Celebrate Juneteenth by Reflecting on Enslavement in the American South

Happy Juneteenth(observation day)! As we take today to commemorate the end of slavery in the US, we are sharing an excerpt from Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South by Stephanie M. H. Camp. 1 A GEOGRAPHY OF CONTAINMENT The Bondage of Space and Time THE PRINCIPLES OF RESTRAINT At the heart of the process of enslavement was… Continue Reading Celebrate Juneteenth by Reflecting on Enslavement in the American South

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/Southern
March 14, 2022

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Elaine Maisner)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Elaine Maisner, one of our Executive Directors. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any of… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Elaine Maisner)

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Asian Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Cuba/Education/Gender Studies/Islamic Studies/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Middle Eastern Studies/Political Science/Reading Lists/Religion/Women's Studies
March 1, 2022

Class Interruptions: The Wrong Side of The Tracks

Happy Women’s History Month! Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.”… Continue Reading Class Interruptions: The Wrong Side of The Tracks

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Excerpts/Literature/Women's Studies
February 28, 2022

Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black International Experience

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ve chosen to publish a new reading list every week featuring only Black authors. The first reading list covered Black resistance, the second covered the Black American experience, the third covered biographies and this week’s reading list centers the Black international experience. While we may not all live in the same area of the world, many… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black International Experience

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Cuba/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Literature/Reading Lists/Sociology/Women's Studies
February 17, 2022

Reimagining Africa: How Black Women Invented the Language of Soul in the 1950s

The following is an excerpt from Tanisha C. Ford’s Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul. From the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1960s through antiapartheid activism in the 1980s and beyond, black women have used their clothing, hair, and style not simply as a fashion statement but as a powerful tool of… Continue Reading Reimagining Africa: How Black Women Invented the Language of Soul in the 1950s

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/American Studies/Excerpts/Gender Studies/Women's Studies
February 15, 2022

Hot Off The Press: February 2022

We’re publishing some great books this month! Read below to learn more about these exceptional titles. Don’t forget to enter code 01DAH40 at checkout for some savings! You can save 40% on ALL UNC Press print books and if your order totals $75 or more, the shipping is FREE! Published: CLASS INTERRUPTIONS: INEQUALITY AND DIVISION IN AFRICAN DIASPORIC WOMEN’S FICTION… Continue Reading Hot Off The Press: February 2022

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Gardening/Literature/North Carolina/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
February 11, 2022

Left of Black web series featuring award-winning author and historian Tanisha C. Ford

In 2016, Tanisha C. Ford, author of Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul was featured on John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute’s Left of Black web series. Left of Black is a web series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars created and hosted by James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Mark Anthony Neal. In this… Continue Reading Left of Black web series featuring award-winning author and historian Tanisha C. Ford

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/American Studies/Gender Studies/Video/Women's Studies
February 8, 2022

Black History Month 2022 Reading List: Black Resistance

As you may already now, February is Black History Month. The history of black people should be celebrated at all times, but in February, we shine an extra special light on it. Black History Month began as Negro History Week in February 1926, created by historian Carter G. Woodson. In 1976, the celebration was expanded to a month. We’ll be… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: Black Resistance

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/Education/Environmental Studies/Gender Studies/History/Literature/Music/Political Science/Reading Lists/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
December 28, 2021

Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century

The following is a guest blog post by Yunxiang Gao, author of Arise Africa, Roar China: Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century, reposted from Fairbank Center Blog. This book explores the close relationships between three of the most famous twentieth-century African Americans, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Langston Hughes, and their little-known Chinese allies during World War… Continue Reading Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Asian American Studies/Asian Studies/Political Science
December 27, 2021

Tears, Fire, and Blood: No Premature Independence, 1941–1951

The following is an excerpt from James H. Meriwether’s Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa. In the mid-twentieth century, the struggle against colonial rule fundamentally reshaped the world and the lives of the majority of the world’s population. Decolonization, Black and Brown freedom movements, the establishment of the United Nations and NATO, an exploding… Continue Reading Tears, Fire, and Blood: No Premature Independence, 1941–1951

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Excerpts/Political Science
December 15, 2021

Universal Human Rights Month: A Recommended Reading List

Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. Fannie Lou Hamer December marks the annual celebration of Universal Human Rights Month. The observance of this month began in 1948 when the U.N. wrote a document called The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document was created after World War II and was used to “properly define what human rights would be protected universally”.… Continue Reading Universal Human Rights Month: A Recommended Reading List

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/American Studies/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Gender Studies/History/Labor Studies/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Latino Studies/Law / Legal History/LGBT Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/North Carolina/Political Science/Reading Lists/Sociology/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
November 29, 2021

2021 Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

Visit our virtual booth for the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting. You can browse our new and recent titles, connect with editor Elaine Maisner, and learn more about our Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series. New Titles in Middle East Studies Afropolitan Projects: Redefining Blackness, Sexualities, and Culture from Houston to Accra Anima Adjepong Planetary Specters: Race, Migration, and… Continue Reading 2021 Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/American Studies/Asian American Studies/Asian Studies/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Environmental Studies/Islamic Studies/Labor Studies/Literature/Middle Eastern Studies/Political Science/Religion/Sociology/UNC Press News
November 22, 2021

How Institutionalized Homophobia Silences Dissent in Ghana and What We Can Do About It

The following is a guest blog post by Anima Adjepong, author of Afropolitan Projects: Redefining Blackness, Sexualities, and Culture from Houston to Accra. Beyond simplistic binaries of “the dark continent” or “Africa rising,” Africans at home and abroad articulate their identities through their quotidian practices and cultural politics. Amongst the privileged classes, these articulations can be characterized as Afropolitan projects–cultural, political,… Continue Reading How Institutionalized Homophobia Silences Dissent in Ghana and What We Can Do About It

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/Guest Bloggers/Sociology
November 2, 2021

The battle is the Lord’s: Christian nationalism and the fight for gender and sexual justice

The following is a guest blog post by Anima Adjepong, author of Afropolitan Projects: Redefining Blackness, Sexualities, and Culture from Houston to Accra. Beyond simplistic binaries of “the dark continent” or “Africa rising,” Africans at home and abroad articulate their identities through their quotidian practices and cultural politics. Amongst the privileged classes, these articulations can be characterized as Afropolitan projects–cultural,… Continue Reading The battle is the Lord’s: Christian nationalism and the fight for gender and sexual justice

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/Sociology
October 11, 2021

Executive Editor Elaine Maisner’s interview with Jean Casimir, author of The Haitians: A Decolonial History

The following is a Q&A between UNC Press Executive Editor Elaine Maisner and Jean Casimir, author of The Haitians: A Decolonial History. The Haitians: A Decolonial History, which opens with an eloquent foreword by Walter Mignolo, was translated by Laurent Dubois. The original book, Une lecture décoloniale de l’histoire des Haïtiens de 1697 à 1915, was published in 2017 by Imprimerie Lakay in… Continue Reading Executive Editor Elaine Maisner’s interview with Jean Casimir, author of The Haitians: A Decolonial History

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/Latin American & Caribbean Studies
September 8, 2021

The Haitians: The Persistence of the Vocabulary of the Slavers

The following excerpt is from “The Persistence of the Vocabulary of the Slavers” in Jean Casimir’s book The Haitians: A Decolonial History. In this sweeping history, leading Haitian intellectual Jean Casimir argues that the story of Haiti should not begin with the usual image of Saint-Domingue as the richest colony of the eighteenth century. Rather, it begins with a reconstruction… Continue Reading The Haitians: The Persistence of the Vocabulary of the Slavers

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist.
August 27, 2021

Author Jean Casimir’s virtual lecture with The Institute of European Studies

Jean Casimir, author of The Haitians: A Decolonial History, gave a virtual lecture back in May at The Institute of European Studies. Casimir, who served as Haitian ambassador to the United States and as a United Nations official, is professor of humanities at the University of Haiti. In this lecture, Jean discusses the Haitian Revolution and the power Haiti used… Continue Reading Author Jean Casimir’s virtual lecture with The Institute of European Studies

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist.
August 20, 2021

Understanding Haiti’s Past: A Reading List

First and foremost, I’d like to say that this post isn’t about painting Haiti as a picture of continued extreme turmoil, trouble and disaster. Haiti has such a beautifully rich and inspiring culture, but has been plagued with fits of corruption, natural disaster and political unrest through the country’s entire existence. Recently, Haiti has been featured in the news more… Continue Reading Understanding Haiti’s Past: A Reading List

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/American History/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/European History/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Military History
July 12, 2021

Cuba’s Fight for Freedom: A Recommended Reading List

Due to the protests happening in Cuba currently, we’ve decided to publish a recommended reading list pertaining to Cuba’s fight for freedom. This isn’t the first time revolts have taken place in Cuba, but what’s going on now has been referred to as the biggest protests Cuba has seen in decades. When I began researching what was going on in… Continue Reading Cuba’s Fight for Freedom: A Recommended Reading List

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/American Studies/Cuba/Cultural Studies/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Health / Medicine/Latino Studies/Political Science/Sociology/Theatre & Performing Arts