Faculty News

AFAM proudly celebrates Dr. Cole, recipient of the CLAS 2026 Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Fund. This award supports Dr. Cole’s groundbreaking research in Black women’s health practices advancing critical conversations on race, medicine, and innovation. Her achievement reflects the AFAM’s commitment to excellence and innovation in the humanities.

The African American Studies Program was well represented at the 2025 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) conference.

On November 19th, 2024, the AFA program welcomed Dr. Mar’tina Wimberly and Dr. Erich T. Wyckoft to discuss the ways social science degrees can be an effective discipline for medical training.

Drs. Cole and Winstead awarded 2024 honorable mention in the Critical Ethnic Studies paper award from the American Studies Association.

Dr. Alyssa Cole recently gave the 2024 Alyce Hunley Whayne lecture entitled “Movement Before the Movement: Black Women’s Health Activism in Kansas City” at Kansas University as part of the Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researchers fellowship. The Whayne Scholars Program supports visiting scholars and researchers from across the country requiring the use of Spencer Research […]

Dr. Kevin Winstead has been named a Center for Black, Brown, and Queer (BBQ+) Studies 2023-2024 Fellow. BBQ+ activates, connects, and mobilizes educators, researchers, and activists from marginalized communities. The BBQ+ Academic Fellowship Program provides mentorship, career development advice, and writing support to underrepresented scholars (broadly and intersectionally defined) as they establish themselves within academic institutions […]

Congratulations to Dr. Riche’ Barnes, who has been awarded a Center for European Studies course enhancement grant for 2024-2025. The CES grant is to develop African American Studies’ African Diaspora course. The course considers the history, culture, and politics of Africans on the continent and African-descended peoples across the world including in the U.S., the […]

The African American Studies program would like to congratulate Dr. Drew Brown, recipient of the University of Florida’s Humanities Scholarship Enrichment Fund (HSEF). The HSEF awards support new research activity that is competitive for National Endowment for the Humanities funding. 

Dr. Kevin Winstead will be a featured panelist for the Digital Inquiry Speculation Collaboration Optimism (DISCO) Network’s DISCO Summit 2024. The Summit is a two-day interdisciplinary summer symposium about digital social inequalities, celebrating the network’s third year.  Dr. Winstead is a former fellow under Dr. André Brock’s Project on Rhetorics, Equity, Access, and Computational Humanities […]

The Digital Inquiry Speculation Collaboration Optimism (DISCO) Network awards African American Studies and Sociology Assistant Professor of Critical Media and AI Studies professor Dr. Kevin C. Winstead $20,000 to fund the Run:/DM.C initiative. The Run:/Digital Media and Community (Run:/DM.C) initiative at the University of Florida is being constituted with a mission of fostering a community […]

The African American Studies program would like to congratulate Dr. Alyssa P. Cole, winner of the 2024 Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researcher Award. The award facilitates research and use of the University of Kansas Library collections. Dr. Cole will use the award this summer to research Black hospitals in Kansas City during the early 20th […]

Dr. Rick Stevenson, a university professor from Florida, discusses the Nubian experience and offers an Afrocentric perspective on Scripture.

University of Florida Professor David Canton joins MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart to discuss AP African American Studies.

Dr. Alyssa P. Cole has been named a Center for Black, Brown, and Queer (BBQ+) Studies 2023-2024 Fellow. BBQ+ activates, connects, and mobilizes educators, researchers, and activists from marginalized communities. The BBQ+ Academic Fellowship Program provides mentorship, career development advice, and writing support to underrepresented scholars (broadly and intersectionally defined) as they establish themselves within academic […]

In fall 2020, the City of Wyoming enlisted Dr. Rik Stevenson to engage city staff, including police and fire departments, in cultural competency training. A lecturer in African American Studies at the University of Florida, Stevenson also has Grand Rapids roots.