The Faculty-Graduate seminar is an intimate intellectual community that comes together to discuss work in progress around a common theme across a wide range of disciplines. Our goal is to establish a small but intellectually diverse and committed group of scholars who will attend all meetings and engage in sustained discourse during the year. Each meeting lasts one hour and twenty minutes followed by dinner. Given these goals and the limited meeting space, we will be accepting only twelve (12) graduate students into each semester’s seminar. We encourage graduate students to commit to both semesters and preference for spring registration will be given to students engaged in the fall seminar. Participation in the African American Studies’ Faculty-Graduate Seminar for one academic year or the equivalent (two semesters) will fulfill one of the requirements for the AAS Graduate Certificate

The Black 1980s: Promises of Inclusion, Perils of Access

From the end of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s to the mid 1990s, Black life in the United States and beyond underwent profound political, social and economic changes.  These transformations have been buried under the language of “post-civil rights era”, telling us little of how that aftermath was experienced in Black communities and among Black people. It remains a period seemingly impervious to historical treatment and understanding. The purpose of our speaker series is to bring light to the tumultuous time of twilight of the twentieth century. Black political thought and struggle did not end with “the sixties” but it changed dramatically, often fractured along the lines of class and gender. The ‘War on Drugs’, demonization of single Black mothers, rising Black poverty and an incipient war on social welfare uneasily co-existed with a historic rise in Black political representation and the emergence of a small but significant Black elite. It was also a quizzical time in terms of the explosion of Black cultural production. Even as Black poor and working-class people were deeply reviled by those in power, Black culture dominated American society.  We seek to understand these developments, their contradictions, and the wide variety of responses they provoked. 

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Joshua Guild are the AY25 Fac-Grad Seminar Faculty Conveners.

Meet The Speaker

Martha Biondi, The Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Black Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University. Specializing in 20th Century African American History, she focuses on social movements, politics, labor, gender, cities, and international affairs. Biondi's research delves into critical moments of transformation within the Black freedom struggle, particularly the impact of Black student activism on higher education.

Her acclaimed book, "The Black Revolution on Campus," published by the University of California Press in 2012, explores how Black student protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to significant changes in university culture, policies, and curricula. This work highlights the pivotal role Black students played in redefining the mission of higher education and ensuring that universities addressed the needs and aspirations of Black communities.

Biondi's scholarship has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change and the Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Her earlier book, "To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City," also garnered significant acclaim, winning the Myers Outstanding Book Award and the Thomas J. Wilson Prize.

Through her extensive publications and research, Biondi continues to shed light on the historical development and future trajectory of African American Studies, emphasizing the enduring influence of Black student activism on academic and social landscapes.