Spring lecture series features UI African American Studies research

The Program in African American Studies at the University of Iowa is presenting a spring lecture series, "New Research in African American Studies." All talks are free and open to the public and will take place at 4 p.m. in 704 Jefferson Building, at the corner of Dubuque and Washington streets in downtown Iowa City.

The series spotlights research by some of the program's junior faculty members and is sponsored by the African American Studies Program and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Excellence and Innovation Fund.

On Friday, April 11, Vershawn Ashanti Young, assistant professor of rhetoric and African-American Studies, will present "Compulsory Homosexuality and Black Masculine Performance."

On Friday, April 25, Deborah Whaley, assistant professor of American Studies and African American Studies, will present "African Goddesses, Mixed-Race Wonders, and Baadasssss Women: Black Female Comic Book Characters of the 1970s and 1980s."

On Friday, May 9, Bridget Harris Tsemo, assistant professor of rhetoric and African American Studies, will present "Our Unwashed Democracy: Class and Black Citizenship after Reconstruction."

Contact Miriam Thaggert at miriam-thaggert@uiowa.edu or 319-335-0467