Category Archives: African American Studies

August 23, 2017

#CharlottesvilleCurriculum: Books for Understanding Systemic Racism

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, american history, black studies | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on #CharlottesvilleCurriculum: Books for Understanding Systemic Racism

University of Illinois Press has always prided ourselves on our commitment to social justice. In light of the recent events in Charlottesville, here are 8 books and journals for understanding systemic racism. Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective by Michael A. Hallet … Continue reading →

June 7, 2017

Book Trailer for “Beyond Respectability”

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, author commentary, authors, gender studies | Comments Off on Book Trailer for “Beyond Respectability”

Film Credit: Bob Greenberg at Brainwaves

June 7, 2017

“Beyond Respectability” on NPR

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, american history, black studies, gender, gender studies, women's history | Comments Off on “Beyond Respectability” on NPR

Brittney C. Cooper’s new book Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women was recently reviewed on NPR! The reviewer described it “a work of crucial cultural study. . . . [Beyond Respectability] lays out the complicated history of black woman as … Continue reading →

May 16, 2017

Harry Edwards on fighting for black athletes and coaches, whether they like it or not

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, Olympic history, politics, sports history | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Harry Edwards on fighting for black athletes and coaches, whether they like it or not

An excerpt from the new introduction to The Revolt of the Black Athlete: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Harry Edwards. I believe that over the last fifty years, the facts, the relationships, and the conclusions drawn from them as portrayed in the … Continue reading →

April 27, 2017

Backstreet Bop: Rhythm of the rails

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, american history, Illinois / regional, music | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Backstreet Bop: Rhythm of the rails

On this day in 1947, the City of New Orleans made its first run between the Chicago and the Crescent City on the Illinois Central line. The City traveled the early 921-mile route in the daytime in those days. The Panama Limited was … Continue reading →

April 13, 2017

Backlist Bop: Take a Ride on the Reading

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, American literature, literary studies | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Backlist Bop: Take a Ride on the Reading

As main man LeVar Burton can attest, you can go twice as high if you take a look, it’s in a book. Reading, though an essential skill to anyone outside politics, is also a topic of intense literary interest. Scholars across … Continue reading →

February 28, 2017

Backlist Bop: Only Pam Grier can save us

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, feminist studies, film, women | Tagged , | Comments Off on Backlist Bop: Only Pam Grier can save us

This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black femininity. Stephane Dunn explores the typical, … Continue reading →

February 23, 2017

Backlist Bop: Black power in its many forms

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, black studies, radical studies | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Backlist Bop: Black power in its many forms

Despite the growing scholarly interest in the civil rights movement, to date there has been no comprehensive examination of the Black Power movement. Black Power in the Belly of the Beast fills this gap by providing the first in-depth look … Continue reading →

February 22, 2017

Funk the Power, Funk the Erotic

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, black studies, gender studies, sexuality studies | Comments Off on Funk the Power, Funk the Erotic

“We have just witnessed a spectacular demonstration of the failures of a national, political imagination. Many of us feel devastated, afraid, and confused. There is no better time than this to accept L.H. Stallings’s Funk the Erotic’s invitation to inhabit … Continue reading →

February 1, 2017

Release Party: The Loyal West, by Matthew E. Stanley

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, american history, Illinois / regional, military history | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Release Party: The Loyal West, by Matthew E. Stanley

A free region deeply influenced by southern mores, the Lower Middle West represented a true cultural and political median in Civil War–era America. Here grew a Unionism steeped in the mythology of the Loyal West—a myth rooted in regional and … Continue reading →