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Shelley Haley, professor of classics and Africana studies and director of the Africana Studies Program, spent the week of March 24-28 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) as a Melvyn Hill Visiting Scholar-in-Residence.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas wrote the introduction for the re-publication of Grenadian writer and educator Albert Marryshow’s Cycles of Civilization: A Refutation of General Jan Smuts Racist Theory.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas has published an article in the new book Claim no Easy Victories: the Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (2013). The book marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Guinea–Bissau & Cape Verde revolutionary and independence movement leader.

Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana studies and co-director of the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), presented at the Fourth Digital Witness Symposium.

In history books, the accomplishments of black women are among those most underrepresented. Through her Emerson Foundation project this summer, Jorett Joseph ’15 aims to research and recognize the efforts of black women who have promoted justice within their communities.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Heather Merrill presented a paper titled “Black Spatialities: Technologies of Invisibility in Europe’s Border Regimes” at the Nordic Geographers’ Meeting, held June 11-14 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana studies and co-director of Hamilton’s Digital Humanities Initiative, recently attended the Summer Institute for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities. The three-week program was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper at a Guyana conference to mark the 250th anniversary of the 1763 Guyana revolution where slaves rose up and controlled the territory of Berbice for more than a year against Dutch colonists. The paper was titled “Comparing Berbice (1763) and the Haitian (1791-1804) Slave Rebellions: Context, Course and Outcomes."

When Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. For Ivy Akumu ’15, it sparked an interest in the history of Christianity and, by extension, of other religions. Her growing fascination led to an Emerson Foundation-funded research project this summer, titled “Demystifying African Religion.”  Through this project, she aims to deconstruct misconceptions about traditional African religions, partially through drawing parallels between them and Christianity.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas has been appointed to the editorial board of a new peer reviewed journal. The Journal of Race and Global Social Change (JRGSC) is “committed to the study of race, its social construction, and resistance within the global context.”