Sherwin Bryant is approaching his new role as director of the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) with energy, enthusiasm and a vision that he said reflects the capacious and thoughtful energy that went into creating the center.
“African and African American studies touch everything that we consider thought at the university,” Bryant said. “If we’re thinking about questions of sustainability, artificial intelligence, design questions, built environment — these are all questions that matter to and that are central to our understanding of the African continent, what’s going on right there right now, as well as people of African descent all over the Americas.”
Bryant said he has big plans for CAAAS from supporting and growing faculty and research to expanding opportunities for Rice students to greater public engagement. But one of the first things on his list after taking the helm Jan. 1 was designing programming for Black History Month.
“I think history is fundamental to this particular project of African and African American studies, so it’s important to mark Black history,” he said.
Bryant created events for the month to focus on some of the important areas of commitment that the center already possesses.
“Each of our talks are meant to both engage the community ‘beyond the hedges,’ as we say here at Rice, but at the same time to engage these particular areas and approaches that are already anchored in the Center for African and African American Studies,” he said.
The center kicked off its events for the month with “Refusal: Black Women’s Fight for Survival and Humanity in Colonial Mexico,” presented by Danielle Terrazas-Williams, an associate professor at the University of Leeds. The lecture was held at the African American Library at the Gregory School in Freedmen’s Town in Houston.
“It was really important to me that we reach out and look for spaces like the Gregory School to try to host events and to curate talks and the like,” Bryant said.
Upcoming events include the following:
Feb. 22
“Building Community through Building Rehabilitation: Rehabilitating Elizabeth City State University’s Rosenwald Practice School,” presented by Melissa Stuckey, associate professor and director of public history at the University of South Carolina.
Reception: 5 p.m.
Lecture: 6 p.m.
The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum
3816 Caroline Street, Houston
Feb. 26
“The First Atlantic Revolution: Abolition and Republic in Islamic West African & the Diaspora,” presented by Butch Ware, associate professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Reception: 5 p.m.
Lecture: 6 p.m.
Ralph S. O’Connor Building, 5th floor
6100 Main Street, Houston
Feb. 29
“Diabetes and the Politics of Migration,” presented by Richard Mizelle Jr., associate professor of history at the University of Houston.
Reception: 5 p.m.
Lecture: 6 p.m.
The African American Library, The Gregory School
1300 Victor, Houston
Bryant said the campus community can expect more dynamic programming, an increased research footprint and additional undergraduate and graduate courses in AAAS from CAAAS in the future. This will include two of his own courses — AAAS 224: Race, Resistance and Revolution: Blacks and Blackness in Latin America and AAAS 524: Comparative Slavery in the Epoch of Atlantic Racial Enslavement.
“For me, it’s really important to ground the history and the material histories of racial slavery in the Americas in the study of African and African Americans,” he said.
Bryant said he also wants the center to be known as a space where students can gather and have conversations about the topics interesting to them.
“Whether that’s about books or films or other interests, we want them to know that we’re eager to have those kinds of dialogues with them and that we want to partner with them and develop new opportunities,” he said.
More information on CAAAS is online at https://caaas.rice.edu.
