IN 2020, UMD was awarded a two-year, $500,000 grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch an interdisciplinary African Diaspora studies research seminar. Led by Dr. Sharon Harley, the seminar, hosted by the Department of African American Studies, “Race/Ethnicity and Gender Identity in a Shifting Cultural, and Racial Climate: African/Black Diaspora Academic and Public Discourse” continues virtually.

The University of Maryland Libraries and Georgia State University Library are embarking on a 3-year long project to make accessible online records that tell the story of the labor movement’s inextricable ties to the civil rights movement.

It did not start with George Floyd. But his words—“I can’t breathe”—and his cries for his deceased mother while dying under the knee of a police officer are what stopped many Americans from continuing to turn a blind eye to outrageous racial injustice.

A UMD researcher's new book explores the concept of "madness" in Black radical art, from comedian Dave Chappelle's (from left) routines to the music of singers Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone. (Animated collage by Valerie Morgan; Dave Chappelle photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage/Getty Images; NIna Simone photo: Ron Kroon/Wikimedia Commons; Lauryn Hill photo: Tore Saetre/Wikimedia Commons)

New UMD research reveals how social determinants of health—from home internet access to accessibility of health-care facilities—correlate to racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccination among white and Black populations.(Illustration by Shutterstock)

Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality—deaths related to pregnancy or childbirth—in the United States may be larger than previously reported, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. By re-examining information on death certificates from 2016 and 2017, researchers found that the maternal mortality rate among non-Hispanic Black women was 3.5 times higher than among non-Hispanic white women. Previously, standard analyses had indicated a 2.5-times-higher death rate for Black women.

On August 31, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) announced that Professor Sharon Fries-Britt was recognized with the 2021 Social Justice in Education Award. This award honors individuals who have excelled in their efforts to link scholarship to social justice and recognizes their outstanding contributions that have transformed education research, policy, and/or practice.

A recent study published in Criminology by researchers at the University of Maryland and at Arizona State University (ASU) finds that Black and Hispanic offenders were more likely to be eligible for life sentences under federal sentencing guidelines, but not more likely to receive life sentences.

Distinguished African American Studies professor, Oscar A. Barbarin, Ph.D., awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant to study racial disparities in School Discipline. The Department of African American Studies, a part of the University System of Maryland’s flagship campus at the University of Maryland, proudly announces faculty member Oscar Barbarin, Ph.D. was named the winner of a grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This funded project addresses the racially disparate use of school suspensions and expulsion.

A team led by a School of Public Health researcher examined millions of race-related tweets from November 2019 to September 2020, and compared trends from the periods before and after Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were killed. Illustration by Valerie Morgan