What Events and Public Conversations Does WashU's AFAS Department Highlight?

WashU's Department of African & African American Studies (AFAS) uses its homepage to spotlight a mix of public-facing conversations: a featured discussion on the future of the American university, faculty book recommendations for Black History Month, and news of scholarly recognition for its James Baldwin Review. These items are presented as current programming and public intellectual engagement rather than as a single events calendar, so the homepage is best read as a snapshot of what the department is highlighting now.

The Featured Discussion: "Black Studies and the Future of the American University"

This is the most prominent conversation on the page. According to the department's excerpt, the discussion centers on several connected pressures facing U.S. universities:

• Academic freedom under challenge — debates over curriculum, speech, and institutional governance, and what they mean for the university's role in a democratic society.
• Funding and research independence — as universities rely more on private funding, tensions emerge between faculty and student research and the interests of donors, foundations, and corporate partners.
• State-level curriculum politics — Missouri is described as a key site for legislative efforts to shape educational curricula, with the concern that such interventions could narrow the range of perspectives and critical analysis available.

The framing is explicitly about how universities can sustain open inquiry, inclusive knowledge production, and democratic engagement under these conditions. If you want the full argument, the page links out with a "Read More Here" prompt.

Why this topic fits the department

The theme connects Black Studies scholarship to broader questions about who shapes curriculum and whose research gets supported — questions the department treats as central to its mission, not peripheral.

Black History Month: Faculty Book Recommendations

The department highlights a Black History Month feature in which WashU professors recommend books. This is a public-facing, low-barrier way to engage with faculty expertise: rather than a formal lecture, it's a curated reading list attributed to named professors. For students, community members, or prospective applicants, it functions as both a reading entry point and a signal of the department's range of faculty interests.

Scholarly Recognition: James Baldwin Review Award

The page announces that the James Baldwin Review's tenth-anniversary Volume 10 won the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) Special Issue Award for 2024–2025. The judges called the issue "expertly edited" and said it would "prove generative for scholarship and creative work to come." CELJ also praised its dual audience — an excellent portrait of why new readers need Baldwin now, and a "who's who" of Baldwin scholarship for specialists.

This item matters for anyone assessing the department's research profile: it shows an active editorial role in a major journal in the field, with peer recognition attached. The page links to read Volume 10.

Graduate Certificate in Global Black Studies

The page also promotes the Graduate Certificate in Global Black Studies, offered by AFAS for doctoral students at Washington University. Per the description, it provides rigorous interdisciplinary training in the humanities and social sciences beyond a student's primary department, through coursework and a community of scholars exploring Black experiences across the globe. The page includes an "Apply Now" prompt, indicating applications are open at the time of the page's content.

How to Use This Page

One practical caveat: the homepage highlights selected items rather than listing dated events, so treat it as a curated front page. For specific event dates, registration, or a full calendar, check the department's other pages or contact the department directly — the homepage excerpt does not provide a schedule.