Patrice Nganang and Zebulon Miletsky 

In accordance with Africana Studies departmental bylaws, Dr. Zebulon Miletsky was voted in as Chair of Africana Studies following Dr. Patrice Nganang's two terms   Dr. Miletsky brings his perspective as a trained historian to the role. He is active in UUP (United University Professionals),  ASALH  (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) and History Makers.  Dr. Miletksy's Before Busing  explores in depth the ambivalence (that led to acceptance)  of integration in Boston's working class neighborhoods. 

Many thanks to Dr. Nganang for making Africana Studies what it is today with two fellows (one becoming tenure track and the other on the path to tenure track) , an assistant professor hiring, numerous promotions, and two highly successful Black Pulsations  series as well as a new course that enrolled 250 students: AFH 101 Wonders of the Black World. Dr. Nganang brought a global perspective to the role with enabling Stony Brook's particiapation in a world conference: African Languages and the Challrenges of Modernity: Writing Challenges, Teaching Strategies and Visions for the Future  (Sepetember 2025). His A Trail of Crab Tracks  caught the attention of the New Yorker in its piece "When a novel reimagines a nation" .  His new work Scale Boy  chronicles his youth evoking the paradoxes of modern Africa-complex, contradictory, and full of conflict, tragedy, and joy. Dr. Nganang's current project makes learning African languages accessible and fun to those of us in the west!  Welcome to the Chair, Dr. Miletsky and Thank you, Dr. Nganang!

Africana Studies Graduation 2026

Adejumoke Ademiluyi (left) received the Richard B. Moore Scholarship, and Angelina Mancini received the Bliss Verdon Scholarship, both students were honored for this achievement at the 2026 AFS graduation!

The Richard B. Moore scholarship (endowed by the Turner Family whose maternal grandmother was Richard B. Moore's daughter) celebrates the first African American self-made millionaire born in Barbados whose work in Harlem as an Afro-Carribeanist inspired generations of Harlem residents.  Mr. Moore propelled the term "African American" over Black or Negro believing it more respectful and illustrative.  The award goes to a an African or African American student with impeccable academic credentials and demonstrable work in social justice.  The Bliss Verdon scholarship, named after a Stony Brook AFS student murdered by her partner the year of her graduation (1995)  went to Angelina Mancini for her academic record and devotion to the Africana Studies Department demonstrated by her club work and TA work with AFS faculty.  This scholarship supports travel and research.  Congratulations to both! 

Mary Seymour, AFS Phi Beta Kappa, AFS MA recipient

Grammy nominated Mary Seymour entertained at the Big Tent event with her group Musique at the United Methodist Church on Saturday, July 25th, 2026.  The event featured crafts for the children, lunch, beverages, dancing lessons and a bouncy castle.  Fun and love for the whole family free of charge!

News from Dr. Rita Nezami

Dr. Rita Nezami received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in November 2025. She was awarded the New York State Council for the Arts award (NYSCA) for literary translation and presentations in 2025. Nezami’s third book publication, a translation of a novel
from French by acclaimed Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun will be published early 2027. She has organized an artist talk on “Black Excellence” by New York University professor Noel Anderson at Africana Studies Department in September 2026. Nezami has been invited to give a talk on “The Rooftop: A Culture-Specific Feminine Space” by Stony Brook University’s Office of Alliance for Culture, Diversity and Inclusion in October 2026. She gave the rooftop talk at Syracuse University’s French Department in April 2026. She will give a talk as a “Translation Panel” member at the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook (HISB) in October 2026. Nezami teaches AFS and AFH courses on race and racism mainly through literary works by African
American and global African writers. She is the AFS Department Representative at UUP.
 

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Chambers

Congratulations to Mark Chambers, assistant professor in the Departments of Africana Studies and History, recently awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant, with colleague Jessica Varner, assistant professor at UPenn.

This award is part of a larger project with team members including Chris Sellers, Department of History; environmental scientist Gretchen Gehrke; Community In-Power Development Association and the Alaska Community Action on Toxics. It will allow them to complete their final NSF research outputs in investigating cumulative exposures in environmental justice research and environmental health science.

Congratulations to Dr. Georges Fouron 

Africana Studies Society (AFSS) by Angelina Mancini

On April 24th, we welcomed a brand new student organization  with an exuberant and bustling opening event. After six months of hard work,dedication, and burning passion, The Africana Studies Society kicked off their first campus event with an impressive launch party that welcomed 90+ attendees. We received overwhelming support, kindness, and interest by faculty, students and community members.

The Africana Studies Society,  a student-led academic society that is dedicated, driven to bring  visibility, respect, and exposure to African American  Study focusing on community-building, creating pathways for equitable education, advocating for prison abolition, and providing free and adequate education, resources, and guidance to youth through various initiatives  meticulously designed over the last half of a year. This organization was brought forth by two undergraduate students of Africana Studies, Meloseri Dumnoi and Angelina Mancini, and could not have been accomplished without the unwavering support of their faculty sponsor, Dr. Jarrett Marin Drake.

The launch party was highly successful, the president, Adejumoke Ademiluyi, vice president, Angelina Mancini, secretary, Matthew Bediako, and treasurer, Prisca Boadu worked alongside the rest of the groups amazing members to put on an event that centered Africana Studies, promoted intellectual growth, and showed the joy of learning to the campus community, while encouraging  peers to join  in this Journey. Pictured students include: Adejumoke Ademiluyi, Angelina Mancini, Meloseri Dumnoi, Destiny Gbor, Peyton Edwards, Mackayla Nerjuste, Hikma Abdulmumin, Amarachi Marshall, Amber McLeod, Deron-Messiah Adams, and Electra Buvoli and also features the Africana Studies Societies Faculty Advisor, Dr. Jarrett Martin Drake!

Celebration of Dr. Annie May Walker, the first Chair of Africana Studies!

Annie May Walker bio by Dr. Abena Ampofoa Asare

In 1945, the young Mrs. Annie Mae Tooks traveled from  Bethune-Cookman College and her home in Daytona Beach, Florida to attend the Bank Street Cooperative School, a progressive teacher training program that stressed the importance of educating “the whole child” and building a more humane, just, and rational world.

Dr. Annie Mae Walker went on to become the first director of Stony Brook University’s Black Studies program (1969). In this role she navigated the demands of Black and Puerto Rican student organizers and the directives of university administrators to establish an educational unit that has persisted for almost six decades. From 1969 to 1975 Stony Brook’s newly formed Black Studies Program (now Africana Studies), established by and supported by Dr. Annie Mae Walker, was decidedly internationalist, unapologetically political, and closely connected to local communities beyond the university’s walls.

On April 16th, Africana Studies hosted a celebration in Dr. Walker's honor funded by the Provost and the Vice President for Diversity Equity and Inclusiveness.  Former students of Dr. Walker's from the class of 1972 came to celebrate, remember and reflect on the difference Dr. Walker made in their Stony Brook lives.  Also present were Dr. Walker's family from Daytona Beach and Atlanta who reminded us that Dr. Walker was not only a gifted, pioneering educator, she was a pianist and cross stitch artist who was very generous with her extended family.  Current Africana Studies students read poetry and  Africana Studies faculty delivered addresses on Dr. Walker's contribution to Stony Brook University and to the world.   A memorial plaque under one of Stony Brook's many flowering trees near the home of Africana Studies (Social and Behavioral Sciences) is being planned and an appropriate location scouted. Contributions are being sought by the students who remember her so well from the class of 1972.

Ben Crump, Esq. Visits Stony Brook and AFS students were there...