Audience members listen to speaker Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman during the September 2024 Research Relay.
Photo: Brandon Martin
The School of Social Sciences will host the second Research Relay of the year on April 3, featuring research from scholars with the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS). The event will take place at 4:00 pm in Kraft Hall 130.
A collaboration between the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences, CAAAS is Rice’s primary location for curriculum and research related to Africa and to people of African descent in the Americas and beyond.
“Nearly five years ago, Rice launched CAAAS in response to a growing desire from the Rice community to engage in critical research and conversations about African and African American studies,” said Kathleen Canning, dean of the School of Humanities. “The center continues to grow today, extending its faculty size and its impact beyond Rice and into local and national communities.”
Offering a broad base for teaching and pedagogical resources as well as interdisciplinary scholarship and programming that brings Rice into national and international conversations, the center is a clearinghouse for critical conversation, instruction, cutting-edge research, and community outreach in an interdisciplinary fashion.
“CAAAS is now emerging as a leading African and African American Studies research hub in the Gulf South,” said Sherwin Bryant, director of CAAAS. “I look forward to sharing my work alongside my CAAAS colleagues, as we expand the global emphasis of the field of Black Studies.”
Speakers will be given four minutes each to share their emerging research with attendees. CAAAS scholars who will present at the April Relay include:
- Sherwin Bryant, whose research addresses the histories of slavery, race, and colonial rule;
- John Baugh, Barbara Jordan Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, whose research centers on the linguistic behaviors of various socially stratified communities;
- Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, associate professor of sociology, whose research focuses on race, family, and African Diasporic studies;
- Linsey Sainte-Claire, assistant professor of modern and classical literatures and cultures, whose research centers on French language, literature, and culture, as well as Black, Caribbean, and African Studies; and
- Amarilys Estrella, assistant professor of anthropology, whose research focuses on the intersections of race and gender within transnational movements, Black Latin American and Latinx identity, as well as human rights and anti-racist activism.
“We created Research Relays as a way to bring faculty together to share their work across all fields,” said Rachel Kimbro, dean of the School of Social Sciences. “CAAAS embodies this interdisciplinary spirit, and we are so excited to learn more about how the center’s faculty are shaping the future with their groundbreaking research.”
Research Relays: The Center for African and African American Studies will take place on April 3, 2025 at 4:00 pm in Kraft Hall 130. Light bites and refreshments will be provided. RSVPs are requested. For questions, contact Pat.DeLucia@rice.edu.