Rhodes College Africana Studies Program

04/16/2026

Join us on campus tomorrow for this lecture.

03/21/2026

Join us for a what promises to be excellent event.

02/28/2026

Africana Studies at Rhodes College stands with our friends and colleagues in Black Studies Programs and Departments across the nation - particularly those being targeted.

We are proud to be co-sponsors of this crucial conversation.

08/07/2025

Opinion: Tennessee legislators lob insults but lack ideas for Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

02/27/2025

Join the Rhodes College Africana Studies Program tonight for an Africana Session on Black History Month.

08/03/2024

McKinley Melton, the incoming director of Africana Studies, shares some thoughts about Baldwin’s first book.

This week marks 100 years since James Baldwin's birth. McKinley Melton talks about how Go Tell it on the Mountain showcases Black literature’s complex relationship with Christianity.

05/06/2024

Meet the new Director of Africana Studies!

Dr. McKinley Melton will join the Africana Studies Program this coming July as Associate Professor and Chair. Dr. Melton earned his Ph.D. from the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his bachelor’s degree from Duke University. Dr. Melton comes to Rhodes after serving as The Kermit O. Paxton and Renee A. Paxton Endowed Teaching Chair and Associate Professor of English at Gettysburg College.

Dr. Melton's research--including his current book project, “Claiming All the World as Our Stage: Contemporary Black Poetry, Performance, and Resistance”--focuses primarily on the relationship between cultural, political, and spiritual traditions and Black diasporan literary and artistic expressions. Dr. Melton's active scholarly agenda also includes published essays on the work and writing of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Danez Smith, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Melton's teaching focuses primarily on 20th and 21st Century African American and African diasporan literatures and his courses are designed to engage the intersections of social, political, and cultural movements as part of a critical approach to Africana literatures.

Welcome to Rhodes, Dr. Melton!

05/02/2024

02/26/2024

This essay is exquisite:

"I will never question the merits of rest. But in the hands of liberalism, rest and self-care has become highly individualized, reduced to a choice which shifts the burden away from the very institutions who steal our time/energy/resources in the first place, and onto the backs of the global majority. The choice to rest is a luxury few can actually afford, and I want to hold space and discontent for that."

the night my Gramma died. I received a call around 11pm the night my Gramma died. Immediately I knew what the buzzing on my nightstand meant for my world from then onward. That knowing prevented me from answering the phone. One, I wanted to hold onto my grandmother for one more night. Two, it meant....

01/11/2024

The Africana Studies Program is proud to present Blair Kelley, in conversation with Wendi Thomas of MLK50.

We hope to see you next week!