African American Studies at Princeton University

In this powerful special edition of the AAS Podcast, host Tera Hunter—Chair of Princeton's Department of African American Studies—leads an urgent and reflective Juneteenth conversation with distinguished scholars Joshua Guild and Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Together, they explore the deep historical roots and contemporary significance of Juneteenth, not merely as a commemoration of emancipation, but as a critical reminder of the ongoing struggle for Black freedom and justice in America.

The episode unpacks the delayed emancipation of enslaved people in Texas and how that moment has come to symbolize both liberation and the persistent deferral of true justice. The guests discuss how Juneteenth can serve as a tool for historical education and political awareness in a time of mounting resistance to teaching about race and systemic inequality. They confront today's challenges—from voter suppression to book bans—and connect them to longstanding efforts to silence Black history.

Topics range from the fight for economic justice and the risk of performative recognition of Black holidays, to the power of grassroots organizing and the legacy of Black resistance. The conversation concludes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to move beyond celebration and toward meaningful engagement with their communities—through education, advocacy, and sustained activism.

Above all, the episode asks: What does freedom truly mean, and how do we continue to fight for it? With clear-eyed realism and a commitment to hope, this Juneteenth conversation invites listeners to reflect, resist, and reimagine the path forward.

Housing justice isn't just about where we live—it's about power, equity, and the future of our communities. In this episode, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, and Majora Carter, real estate developer, urban revitalization strategist, and MacArthur Fellow, examine the systemic racism baked into housing policies and the economic forces that shape our neighborhoods. Taylor underscores the need for grassroots activism, while Carter shares her work on reversing the brain drain in low-status communities like the South Bronx. Together, they push for a fundamental shift in how we think about housing, development, and opportunity.

In this episode of the African American Studies podcast, host Justice Wilhoit engages in a critical conversation with Professors Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. and Marcus Lee about the current political landscape, particularly focusing on the implications of the 2020 election, the presidency of Joe Biden, and the role of Kamala Harris. The discussion also delves into intra-party dynamics within the Democratic Party, the strategies of the Republican Party, and the impact of student activism in relation to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The speakers emphasize the need for innovative approaches to activism and the significance of community support in navigating political challenges.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Its Themes 03:01 The Political Landscape and the 2020 Election 06:05 Biden's Presidency and Its Implications 09:00 Kamala Harris: Identity and Political Strategy 11:50 Intra-Party Dynamics and the Democratic Party\ 14:47 Republican Party Strategies and Voter Dynamics 18:12 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Student Activism 28:17 Media's Role in Shaping Discourse 32:40 Reflections on Privilege and Activism 37:03 The Complexity of Political Engagement 40:58 Symbolism and Representation in Politics 46:18 The Power and Influence of Media 53:06 Community and Hope in Political Times

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).

Princeton AAS Podcast S2 E07

A Painter's Eye

In this episode, we sit down with the legendary historian and artist Nell Painter to discuss her career and its connections to Black Studies. From reckoning with historical figures as individuals, to her life and work at Princeton, to her own works-in-progress, this podcast has something for everyone. Our hosts dive deep into Painter's legacy and the lessons she has for our present moment.

"This new and 'old' artist offers a self-portrait in starting over," PBS NewsHour, July 23, 2018

"Nell Painter: Old In Art School," GBH Forum Network, July 31, 2018

Nell Irvin Painter (nellpainter.com)

Nell Irvin Painter is Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita at Princeton University. She was Director of Princeton's Program in African-American Studies from 1997 to 2000. In addition to her doctorate in history from Harvard University, she has received honorary doctorates from Wesleyan, Dartmouth, SUNY-New Paltz, and Yale. Prof. Painter has published numerous books, articles, reviews, and other essays, including The History of White People. She has served on numerous editorial boards and as an officer of many different professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Antiquarian Society, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and the Association of Black Women Historians.

Nell Painter (the painter formerly known as the historian Nell Irvin Painter) lives and works in Newark, New Jersey. Her work carries discursive as well as visual meaning, and is made in a manual and digital process. Using found images and digital manipulation, she reconfigures the past and self-revision through self-portraits. After a life of historical truth and political engagement with American society, her artwork represents freedom, including the freedom to be totally self-centered.

• "The Extraordinary Women of AAS Featuring Nell Painter," Princeton University Department of African American Studies, March 28, 2022
• Nell Irvin Painter, Southern History Across the Color Line (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021 [2002])
• Nell Painter, "American Whiteness Since Trump," James Fuentes Gallery, 2020
• "Nell Painter and Black Power in Print," Museum of Fine Arts Boston, November 15, 2021
• "Nell Irvin Painter to Deliver the Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture," American Council of Learned Societies Annual Meeting, Friday, April 29, 2022 @ 6:00 PM EST (registration in link)

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)

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

Princeton AAS Podcast S2 E04

University Reckonings

Over the past decade, historians have probed the relationship between higher education and slavery through innovative public-facing projects that raise important questions. What role have academic institutions played in perpetuating racial inequality? How are scholars and students today working to hold universities accountable for past and present injustices? What role should public engagement play in shaping the future of scholarship and the mission of the university? As campuses buzz back to life, our hosts Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig discuss the legacy of universities and slavery with up-and-coming scholars in Black Studies: R. Isabela Morales, Charlesa Redmond, and Ezelle Sanford, III.

President Eisgruber's message to community on removal of Woodrow Wilson name from public policy school and Wilson College, June 27, 2020

Editorial Board, "After five years of student activism, it's time for the U. to stop dragging its feet," The Daily Princetonian, July 2, 2020

Maya Kassutto, "Remains of children killed in MOVE bombing sat in a box at Penn Museum for decades," BillyPenn, April 21, 2021

"MOVE Bombing at 30," Democracy Now, May 13, 2015

Benjamin Ball, "Students hold protest in solidarity with MOVE," May 2, 2021

Association of Black Anthropologists, "Collective Statement Concerning the Possession and Unethical Use of Remains," April 28, 2021

Isabela Morales, Ph.D. (http://www.risabelamorales.com/)

Dr. R. Isabela Morales received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 2019 and is Editor and Project Manager of the Princeton & Slavery Project. Her first book, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2022. After two years working for the 9/11 Memorial Museum, she will join the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum while working on her second book project.

Ezelle Sanford III, Ph.D. (http://www.ezellesanford.com/)

Dr. Ezelle Sanford III is an Assistant Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University and received his PhD in history of science from Princeton in 2019. A scholar of African American, medical, and urban history, Dr. Sanford's book project, Segregated Medicine: How Racial Politics Shaped American Healthcare, explores the history of racial inequality in healthcare through the lens of St. Louis's Homer G. Phillips Hospital, America's largest segregated hospital in the mid-twentieth century. Before coming to his current position, Dr. Sanford was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Manager for the Penn Medicine and the Afterlives of Slavery Project.

Charlesa Redmond (https://scholars.duke.edu/person/charlesa.redmond)

Charlesa Redmond is a Ph.D. student in History at Duke University. A 2017 graduate of Princeton University, her senior thesis work was based in materials made accessible through the Princeton & Slavery Project. Her Ph.D. research aims to explore how colleges and universities tried to answer "the slavery question," and how such answers manifested themselves into tangible actions—frustrating the slave trade at times while furthering it at others.

The Princeton & Slavery Project

Penn & Slavery Project and Penn Medicine and the Afterlives of Slavery

Komal Patel, "Penn Museum to remove Morton Cranial Collection from public view after student opposition," The Daily Pennsylvanian, July 12, 2020.

Rachel L. Swans, "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?" The New York Times, April 17th, 2016

Georgetown Slavery Archive and Georgetown Reflects on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation

"Black at Mizzou," APM Reports, August 14, 2020

Courtney Perrett, "MU alumna shares her 'Black at Mizzou' experience in new audio documentary," Missourian, August 18, 2020

Eddie R. Cole, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2020)

"College presidents and the struggle for Black freedom," Princeton University Press Ideas Podcast, December 1st, 2020

Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, Tell Them We Are Rising (PBS Independent Lens, 2018)

When we talk about Juneteenth, sometimes called America's second Independence Day, what exactly are we talking about? How has the end of slavery been celebrated across time in Black communities? What political obligations does its commemoration bring to the fore? Join our hosts, Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig, as they talk with Professor Joshua B. Guild about the past, present, and future of Juneteenth.

Note: At press time, both the Senate and House have passed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill is on President Biden's desk.

"Celebrating Juneteenth," ABC News, June 19, 2020

Joshua Gargiulo, "Fact check: Barack Obama mentioned Juneteenth multiple times while president," USA Today, June 28, 2020

Jeanine Santuci, "'I made Juneteenth very famous': Trump takes credit for holiday celebrating Emancipation Proclamation," USA Today, June 18, 2020

"What Is Juneteenth? Dulcé Sloan Explains," The Daily (Social Distancing) Show, June 19, 2020

"What Juneteenth tells us about the value of black life in America," The Washington Post, June 19, 2020

Our second episode looks at the culture and politics of Black foodways, from the ways in which Black women have used food to create traditions and claim power to the contemporary politics of nutrition, stereotypes, and food shaming. Beyond the platitude that food unites us all, Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig explore the diversity of ways in which food is a site where identities are constructed and contested.