Dr. Daniel K. Thompson publishes new book, Smugglers, Speculators, and the City in the Ethiopia-Somalia Borderlands
March 2025
UC Merced Anthropology Professor Daniel K. Thompson follows traders and return-migrants across borders to where their lives collide in the city. Analysing their strategies of mobility and exchange, this study reveals how Ethiopia's federal politics, Euro-American concerns about terrorism, and local business aspirations have intertwined to reshape links between border-making and city-making in the Horn of Africa. To understand this distinctive brand of urbanism, Thompson follows globalized connections and reveals how urbanites in Africa and beyond participate in the “urban borderwork” of constructing, as well as contesting, today's border management regimes.
UC Merced Newsroom Publishes News Article Spotlighting the Center for Africana Studies for its Black History Month Series
February 27, 2025
Brenda Ortiz interviewed the Center for Africana Studies co-directors Dr. Muey Saeteurn and Dr. Sabrina Smith. They discuss the center's formation and its vital contributions to larger societal conversations on and outside campus. The piece showcases the opportunities that C.A.S. provides for the UC Merced and Merced community, including, but not limited to, research and conference grants, grant showcases, and speaker series with prominent figures like OAH Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley, and Zimbabwean filmmaker, writer and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga. Ortiz further interviewed Ph.D. student Bethany Padron, who received a research travel grant in the summer of 2024 through C.A.S., which gave her the opportunity to conduct research in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lastly, undergraduate history major Virginia Mateo provided insight into her experience as a grant recipient, a C.A.S. intern, and her current position of a student assistant. Read more here.
Dr. Maria Martin is featured in an online forum considering the activism of Black women throughout the African Diaspora
September 20, 2024
Dr. Maria Martin, Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies was featured in an online forum considering the activism of Black women throughout the African Diaspora. Here, you can see the forum featured in Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society. You can also read Dr. Martin’s piece here.
Dr. Whitney Pirtle co-authored a review, “On Joy and War: Black Feminism/Intersectionality,” in the journal Annual Review of Sociology
August, 2024
Dr. Whitney Pirtle, Associate Professor of Sociology whose expertise is in critical race theory, Black feminist sociology and praxis, and social inequality, co-authored a review, “On Joy and War: Black Feminism/Intersectionality,” in the journal Annual Review of Sociology. Read more here.
Dr. Nicosia Shakes publishes “Representing an Icon: A Conversation on Bob Marley: One Love”
June, 2024
Dr. Nicosia Shakes, Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, who specializes in African Diasporic theatre, gender, and activism, published “Representing an Icon: A Conversation on Bob Marley: One Love” with two other scholars in Small Axe: Salon. This piece is about the Bob Marley biopic released this year by Paramount Pictures. Read more here.
Sabrina Smith publishes new article in the Oxford Encyclopedia on African History
History and CRES Students Research Slavery in Oaxaca, Mexico
Daniel Thompson Presents at UC Berkeley's Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Fall 2023 CAS Conference Travel Grant Awardees
Sabrina Smith Publishes New Article on Black Women in Colonial Oaxaca
Nicosia Shakes on Black Women’s Activist Theater
October 5, 2023
Nicosia Shakes, assistant professor in the Department of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, specializes in African Diasporic theatre, performance, popular culture, gender, sexuality, and activism. In episode 156 of Imagine Otherwise, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Shakes, whose creative and scholarly work celebrates the intertwining of political activism and performance across the African diaspora. Read more here.
