Spring 2026

BLACK STUDIES (BL_STU) Spring 2026 COURSES

BL_STU 1000/H – Introduction to Black Studies MWF 12:00-12:50 AM BCC 116 Jirik

BL_STU 1704/H – Introduction to Black Politics M/W/F 9:00-9:50 AM A&S 201 Saad

BL_STU 2200 – Social Inequalities, Online, Grossman

BL_STU 2604 – Caribbean History and Culture Tu/Th 9:30 – 10:45 Gentry Hall 325 Dunkley

BL_STU 2715H – Studies in Black Culture Tu/Th 3:30 – 4:45 PM A&S 233 Kaganda

BL_STU 2975 - Traditions and Concepts in Black Studies Tu/Th 11:00 – 12:15 PM Gentry Hall 325 Atuhura

BL_STU 3230 – Black Sexual Politics M/W/F 1:00 – 1:50 PM BCC 116 Carney

BL_STU 3410 - Survey of African American Literature, 1900 – Present M/W/F 2:00- 2:50 PM A&S 310 Buckner

BL_STU 3977 - The Black Imagination M/W/F 10:00 – 10:50 AM Gentry Hall 325 Jirik

*BL_STU 4005 - Topics in Black Studies: African Body Politics Tu/Th 2:00 – 3:15 PM Gentry Hall 325 Atuhura

*BL_STU 4303 - Black Studies in Race, Class, and Gender Tu/Th 2:00 – 3:15 PM Middlebush Hall 13 Mack

BL_STU 4500 - Special Problems in Black Studies

*BL_STU 4835W - Race and Politics in South Africa M 1:00 – 3:20 PM Jesse Hall 410 Friedich and Fejzula

BL_STU 4975 – Black Studies Internship

BL_STU 4977 – Black Studies Capstone

*BL_STU 8000 – Independent Readings in Black Studies

 Core course requirements are in bold.

*Indicates graduate course and graduate option available.

Department News and Highlights

Prof. Mike Jirik has published his first book. Dissenting Forces: A History of Abolition and Black Thought in Higher Learning was released in November 2025 with New York University Press. The book explores how enslaved people and Black abolitionists used college campuses to fight for liberation and a new humanity. More information can be found here: Dissenting Forces.

Dr. Anna Fett, Review of Dear Unknown Friend: The Remarkable Correspondence Between American and Soviet Women (By Alexis Peri, Harvard University Press, 2024), in Peace & Change (26 September 2025).

Dr. Willie Mack’s commentary, “Trump 2.0: A dark mirror into our past,” was published with Black Agenda Report in January. It can be accessed here.

Dr. Daive Dunkley’s article, “Decolonization and Neocolonial Politics in British Jamaica: The Repatriation-Reparations Struggle and the Afro-West Indian Welfare League, 1938-1962,” will be published in the Spring 2026 edition of the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History.

NEWS & UPDATES

Black History Month 2026 Events

Dr. Daive Dunkley will be presenting on: The Making of Black Columbia, Missouri’s Middle Class: The Story of Frank and Hester McKinney, 1850-1934, February 12, 2026, from 5:30-6:30 at Frederick Douglass High School, Columbia, MO. This event is made possible with the support of a Robert Wood Johnson Transforming Academia for Equity grant and Principal Neville of Douglass High School.

Dr. Mary Beth Brown will be presenting on Stunning Little Dixie: Student Activism on the University of Missouri Campus and its Legacy, February 24, 2026, 6 pm, Hulston Hall Room 7, MU Campus. The presentation will include discussing the formation of LBC and some of the other activism in the 60s and 70s with the women’s rights movement and the potential surveillance of activists on campus by the university president. Sponsored by the Michael A. Middleton Center for Race, Citizenship and Justice.

Omotayo Jemiluyi, Graduate Fellow at MU’s Interdisciplinary Migration Studies Institute,will be presenting on From Fela Kuti’s Why Black Suffer to Burna Boy’s Monster You Made: African Music in the Age of Decolonization, February 26, 2026, 1-2 pm, Gentry Hall 235, MU Campus.

February 25, 2026, 3:00 pm, Ellis Library. Film screening of Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten–until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present.

Please join us at the annual Black Studies & Peace Studies Spring 2026 Fair on March 5, 2026, 12-1 pm in Gentry Hall, 325! Contact Dr. Daive Dunkley for more information.

Call for Papers: The 2026 Black Studies Conference on “Missing and Murdered: A Transdisciplinary Conference on Black Women and Girls in Missouri and Beyond,” October 15-16, 2026, MU Campus. The conference will intervene in an urgent and long-overdue conversation on missing and murdered African American women and girls in Missouri and beyond. Presentation proposals should be submitted to: https://missouri.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e5wjtq9a271Mn4iby March 31, 2026

Online access to the Walter Daniel Library Catalog @ Black Studies

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

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The annual submission deadlines are November 12 and March 12

• Charles Sampson Scholarship in Public Affairs and Black Studies – for research support up to $500.
• James S. Rollins Slavery Atonement Scholarship – for research support up to $1,000.
• Mary Crawford King and Louis King Scholarship – for research support up to $1,000 when participating in an MU study abroad program with an interest in studying people of African descent.

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

Counseling Center (573) 882-6601
Disability Center (573) 882-4696
Financial Aid Office (573) 882-7506
Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center(573) 882-2664
International Programs (573) 882-6007
Learning Center
MU Alert
MizzouOne
Office for Financial Success (573) 882-2173
Office of Student Accountability & Support (573) 882-5543
RSVP (Relationship & Sexual Violence Prevention Center) (573) 882-6638

Student Health Center (573) 882-7481

Tiger Pantry (573) 882-3780
TEAM (Transfer Experience & Advising Mentors) (573) 884-8501
Truman's Closet (573) 882-2704
Veterans Center (573) 884-4383
Wellness Center (573) 882-4634
Emergency: 911/ MU Police: (573) 882-7201
Bias Hotline (844) 946-1837

Ask, Listen, Refer (Suicide Prevention Training Program)
National Hotlines

• Veterans 1-800-273-TALK (8255) (then press 1)
• 24 Hour Crisis Hotline 1-800-395-2132
• Domestic Violence (573) 875-0503