African American Studies at Princeton University

In the second episode of the AAS 21 podcast, Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. spoke with Wallace Best, Professor of Religion and African American Studies about his forthcoming book, Looking for Langston: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem. In the book, Professor Best encourages readers to read Langston Hughes religiously, and as a humanist in the tradition of American Religious Liberalism. Though Hughes was criticized, censored and even humiliated by other writers, and federal investigators, because of some of his more radical work like the poem ‘Goodbye Christ,’ Best contends that even through imagining a critical discourse with God, Hughes demonstrates an acknowledgement as to the existence of God. In fact, Hughes was a lover of gospel music and an avid churchgoer, never belonging to one church, but present in his own way in many, reflecting Hughes’ evasive way of being, a style Best describes as influenced by Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg. Best’s new work is the result of 12 years of archival research and “communing with Langston."

Two events in 1921—more than a thousand miles apart—had a profound impact on African American history: the production of the all-Black musical Shuffle Along and the Tulsa race massacre. A century on, an online workshop held at Princeton, Reactivating Memory, sought to explore the relationship between these seemingly disparate events and consider their legacy in Black life today. Our host Mélena Laudig sat down with Michael J. Love, A.J. Mohammed, and Dr. Catherine M. Young, all contributors to the team that organized this fascinating workshop. Tune in to learn more about how they balance performance, scholarship, and activism, and to dig into the history of Shuffle Along and the legacy of Black theatrical practice.

Brian D. Valencia, “Musical of the Month: Shuffle Along,” NYPL Blog, February 10, 2012

“Show Clips: SHUFFLE ALONG, Starring Audra McDonald,” Broadwaycom, May 10, 2016

On this podcast, we have addressed different dimensions of scientific racism from COVID-19 disparity data to the uses of human remains in anthropology.

Jacque Smith and Cassie Spodak, “Black or 'Other'? Doctors may be relying on race to make decisions about your health,” CNN, June 7, 2021

Ezra Turner, “MOVE Bombing Remains Scandal Shows Enduring Racism in Anthropology,” Teen Vogue, July 16, 2021

Black AF in STEM

(Photo credit: Becca Skinner / Day's Edge Productions)

Shane Campbell-Staton (https://www.campbellstaton.com/)

Shane Campbell-Staton is an Assistant Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He comes to us from UCLA where he was jointly appointed in the Institute for Society and Genetics. His research group focuses on evolution in the Anthropocene, studying animal performance, gene expression and genomics to understand the lasting biological impacts of our human footprint. In addition to his scientific work, Shane hosts the popular podcast “The Biology of Superheroes,” with Arien Darby.

(Photo credit: Princeton University)

Ayah Nuriddin (https://sf.princeton.edu/people/ayah-nuriddin)

Ayah Nuriddin is a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in Princeton’s Society of Fellows, as well as a lecturer in the Council of Humanities and African American Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University. Ayah’s work shows how African Americans have navigated questions of racial science, eugenics, and hereditarianism in relation to struggles for racial justice since the nineteenth century. She is also interested in how race and scientific racism shape discourses and activism around health inequality. Ayah is working on a book manuscript, “Seed and Soil: Black Eugenic Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” and teaches courses at Princeton like “Beyond Tuskegee: Race and Human Subjects Research in US History.”

Shane Cambpell-Staton and Arien Darby, The Biology of Superheroes Podcast

Ayah Nuriddin, “African Americans and Eugenics,” C-SPAN American History TV, January 5, 2018

Terence Keel, Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science (Stanford University Press, 2018)

PBS: American Experience, The Eugenics Crusade, October 16, 2018

Alexander Glustrom, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall (Fire River Films, 2020)

How do we look at, and respond to, work by Black contemporary artists? In this episode, we sat down with Tina Campt, Visiting Professor in Art & Archaeology and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton. We trace the arc of Prof. Campt’s career, from her earlier research on family photography in the African diaspora and how one can “listen to images,” all the way to her current writing and recent trip to this year’s Venice Biennale. Along the way, we discuss concepts that elucidate the aesthetic, political, and experiential dynamics of work by artists like Jennifer Packer, Cameron Rowland, Stan Douglas, and Simone Leigh.

Tina M. Campt, Listening to Images (Duke University Press, 2017).

Tina M. Campt, A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See (MIT Press, 2021).

(Photo credit: barnard.edu)

Tina M. Campt (https://artandarchaeology.princeton.edu/people/tina-m-campt)

Professor Campt taught a multidisciplinary seminar called “Radical Composition” as a Visiting Professor at Princeton for the Spring 2022 semester. She is the Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, and heads the Black Visualities Initiative at Brown’s Cogut Institute for Humanities. In addition to the five books she has authored and edited, such as Listening to Images and A Black Gaze, Professor Campt is the lead convener of the Practicing Refusal Collective and the Sojourner Project.

• “Radical Composition” course materials:
• Saidiya Hartman, "Venus in Two Acts." Small Axe 12, no. 2 (2008): 1-14.
• Flying Lotus, “Until the Quiet Comes,” dir. Kahlil Joseph (2012).
• Carrie Mae Weems, “People of a Darker Hue” (2016).
• Jay-Z, “4:44,” dir. Arthur Jafa (2017).
• Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, The Sweet Flypaper of Life (First Print Press, 2018).
• Practicing Refusal Collective, The Sojourner Project (ongoing).
• Whitney Museum of American Art, “Ask a Curator: Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing” (2022).
• Taylor DaFoe, “How Curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards Tackled the 2022 Whitney Biennial to Show ‘What America Really Looks Like’,” artnet news (March 29, 2022).
• Simone Leigh, Sovereignty, Official U.S. Presentation, 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, April 23–November 27, 2022.
• National Gallery of Art, Afro-Atlantic Histories, April 10–July 17, 2022.
• Tina M. Campt, fourth lecture in the series Image Complex: Art, Visuality & Power, University of Sydney (online lecture, October 19th, 2022, register here).

In the first podcast produced by the Princeton University Department of African American Studies, colleagues Eddie Glaude Jr., Imani Perry, Naomi Murakawa, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discuss, among other topics, contemporary American politics and the disaster called this election. The discussion moves from examining the political policy points put forward by Clinton and Trump to the political vision put forward by the Movement for Black Lives. The group also addresses the demands of mainstream media, considers how scholars and activists may understand their interaction with media, and discusses how scholars and activists may serve as bridges to one another.

This podcast was recorded, edited, and published by the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University.

Social Media Manager / Producer - Allison Bland Audio Engineer & Technical Specialist - Elio Lleo Music: Courtney Bryan