MIZZOU BLACK STUDIES

Fall 2024 Undergraduate Studies Newsletter      ­

Black Studies (BL_STU) Fall 2024 Courses

 Core course requirements are in bold.

*Indicates graduate course.

ACCOLADES

Professor Willie Mack is the 2024-2025 Racial Justice Fellow at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Professor Mack’s project with Harvard University’s Carr Center will be critical to the preparation of his book manuscript, titled Transnational Carceral Regimes and Punitive Anti-communism: Haitian Immigrants, Race, Empire, and Policing in New York City and Haiti, 1935-2000, which investigates the twentieth-century Haitian experience through the lens of U.S. carceral empire. It does this by taking a transnational approach to analyze Haitians in the U.S. and Haiti through the intersection of the carceral state, Cold War politics, race, and imperialism and argues that the U.S.’s punitive anticommunist policies during the Cold War combined to create what he calls a transnational carceral network between the U.S. and Haiti. This carceral network benefitted Haitian oligarchs in Haiti while serving the interest of U.S. carceral empire, that is: capitalism and white supremacy in the U.S. Within this network in Haiti, Haitians who attempted to resist state repression were imprisoned, tortured or killed. In the U.S., Haitians were a triple minority: they were Black, immigrants, and foreign language speakers.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT – MAURICE AUBERRY

Hi, my name is Maurice Auberry, and I graduated from Mizzou in 2023 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology, and minors in Black Studies and Criminology. This fall, I will be attending law school at Temple University, with the hopes of eventually working in the realm of 

public interest. 

When I originally started at Mizzou, I had no intention of going to law school, and a Black Studies degree was not even on my radar. However, I quickly fell in love with the department and all the outstanding faculty. Through the extremely engaging courses, and amazing classmates, I learned invaluable lessons that have helped propel me to a place I didn’t think was possible. Few work as hard as the wonderful people in Gentry, and I can’t recommend them enough!

Online access to the Walter Daniel Library Catalog @ Black Studies

The Black Studies Department’s Walter Daniel Library Catalog is now available online. You can access the catalogue here.

New Faculty in Black Studies and Peace Studies

Welcome Dr. Anna Fett, the Mehr Family Faculty Scholar Assistant Professor of Peace Studies & Black Studies, and Dr. Dorothy Atuhura, Assistant Professor of Black Studies

Department Publication Announcements

Dr. Anna Fett has contributed to an edited volume titled Youth and Sustainable Peacebuilding. I find the contributions on the bottom-up responses and actions taken by young people on the ground in relation to the international Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda extremely insightful. See here for more information.

Dr. Willie Mack will have his article, “‘The War at Home’: Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Black Community; Race and Policing in New York City, 1970 to 1997,” published in the Journal of Urban History. “The War at Home” argues that in 1971, a war between the radical Black Liberation Army and the New York City Police Department erupted, and within this war, the NYPD tried to influence Black politics in the city’s Black community. However, the Black community in New York City was not monolithic politically. This community was diverse in its political makeup, and there was a political ambivalence among Black people about policing in their communities. It further demonstrates that the law-and-order turn was not fully embedded in white liberals’ virtuous attempts to pacify Black radicals or that the rise of law-and-order was not solely a product of federal projects such as the War on Poverty. Instead, this article argues that political debates within New York City’s Black community and efforts by the NYPD to influence Black politics largely drove the city towards more significant law and order policing. Available online in Fall 2024 and in print in Fall 2025.

Passing of Dr. William (Gene) E. Robertson

Dr. William (Gene) E. Robertson, a professor emeritus at MU and a former affiliate of the Black Studies Department, passed away on January 6, 2024, at the age of 87. Robertson grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and joined MU as a professor of community development. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to his work at MU, Robertson lectured at the Hong Kong University and the Chinese University, where he assisted the Hong Kong government in developing a community housing plan. Robertson also served as a consultant to the Justice Department, helping community groups develop an alternative education plan. He is the author of several publications on community and housing development.

2024 Black Studies Department Conference:

“Critical Perspectives on the University”

In recent years activists, intellectuals, and scholars have engaged the nature and function of universities in the West. The official narratives universities administrators project often do not reflect the lived experiences of students and workers on campus. They also do not reflect the role of universities in society at the local, national, and global levels. What explains this disconnect? In what ways might this disconnect reflect the historical and ongoing inequalities universities have benefited from and perpetuate? These are the central questions that will guide our two-day conference. For more information or any questions, please contact: Blackstudies@missouri.edu or visit the conference website. 

When: October 10 and 11, 2024

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College. Dr. Baldwin is a leading urbanist, historian, and cultural critic. His work largely examines the landscape of global cities through the lens of the African Diasporic experience. Baldwin’s related interests include universities and urban development, the racial foundations of academic thought, intellectual and mass culture, Black radical thought and transnational social movements, the politics of heritage tourism, and 20th and 21st Century art, architecture, and urban design.

Where: University of Missouri, Columbia

Organized by the Department of Black Studies, University of Missouri

Black History Month Distinguished Lecture

We are almost there! Black History Month 2025 is around the corner. The picture below shows a scene featuring students with Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, our distinguished BHM lecturer for 2023. As we look ahead to 2025, stay tuned for the announcement of the new distinguished BHM lecturer. The 2025 theme is African Americans and Labor, featuring “various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people…and how work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora.”

Scholarship Opportunities

Apply for the Charles Sampson Scholarship in Public Affairs and Black Studies

The MU Department of Black Studies is accepting applications for research support up to $500 from the Charles Sampson Scholarship in Public Affairs and Black Studies at the University of Missouri. Two annual awards shall be given to students majoring or minoring in Black Studies in the College of Arts and Science. Students at the University of Missouri-Columbia, across departments and disciplines, are eligible for an award from original research (e.g., based on primary sources or human subjects’ data) leading to the presentation or publication of findings will receive preference. For more information, visit Charles Sampson Scholarship. Applications are due November 12 and March 12 annually.

Apply for the James S. Rollins Slavery Atonement Scholarship 

The MU Department of Black Studies is accepting applications for research support up to $1,000 from the James S. Rollins Slavery Atonement Endowment for Black Studies at the University of Missouri. Three annual awards will be given to students majoring or minoring in Black Studies in the College of Arts and Science. For more information, visit Rollins Scholarship.­ Applications are due November 12 and March 12 annually.

Apply for the Mary Crawford King and Louis King Scholarship 

The MU Department of Black Studies is accepting applications for research support up to $1,000 from the Mary Crawford King and Louis King Scholarship Endowment in Black Studies at the University of Missouri. Two annual awards shall be given to students majoring or minoring in Black Studies in the College of Arts and Science. Recipients shall be participating in a study abroad program in Africa, the Caribbean, the West Indies, or South America with an interest in studying people of African descent. For more information, please visit Mary Crawford King and Louis King Scholarship. Applications are due November 12 and March 12 annually.

Black Studies: Refer a Friend, Pass the Word 

Do you know anyone who should be getting this newsletter? Anyone you think needs to know more about Black Studies? Or would benefit from knowing more? Please feel free to forward this newsletter and ask the person to reach out to Dr. Mack to be put on the distribution list. Black Studies Matters! Pass it on.

And if you wish to unsubscribe (we think that’s a mistake, but we understand), please let Dr. Mack know as well.

Do you need support?

Advice? Advising? Resource Assistance? 

Whatever you need, we have you covered. See the various advising, faculty, and support offices below. And reach out before things become complicated; we truly are here to help.

MIZZOU BLACK STUDIES

Undergraduate Advisor:   Kibby Smith

Director of Undergraduate Studies:   Dr. Willie Mack

Department Administration and Business Manager:   Shawn Hall

Department Chair:   Dr. Daive Dunkley

MIZZOU RESOURCE CENTERS and OFFICES