Initially started as a Ph.D. granting program in 2002, with an undergraduate minor created in 2014, the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) was officially founded in 2019. Leading the program is Inaugural Department Chair Ruth Nicole Brown and Foundational Associate Professor Tamura Lomax.

Though the formation of this new department during a global pandemic has presented unique challenges, Brown and Lomax have both a vision and mission that is committed to making concrete connections between scholarship, pedagogy, and social justice.

In the latest CAL Conversation webinar, Brown and Lomax discuss the build of MSU’s newest department – a department providing versatile and interdisciplinary training in Black Studies with innovative degrees and pedagogical strategies suited for the challenges and promises we face in the 21st century.

For more information on AAAS, please visit the Department of African American and African Studies website​.