News

Safiya Noble wins I-CHASS XSEDE grant

Posted Fri, 15 Feb 2013

Dr. Safiya Noble, in collaboration with the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science (I-CHASS) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Cybersecurity Group, has been awarded a startup allocation grant on the National Science Foundation's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), a national collaboration of supercomputing infrastructures. Dr. Nobles research team will use XSEDE to pursue large-scale visualizations. In her research, she is examining the movement of consumer data across international borders which has come about as a result of increasing use of cloud computing tools (e.g., Facebook, Amazon, Gmail, YouTube, etc.). The central research questions will focus on how to best understand the implications of data storage by cloud-computing companies outside of the U.S, and whether our personal information is at risk as it crosses national borders. The pressing theme of this research is concerned with whether the public's data is protected under the terms of service agreements, international trade agreements protecting commercial data, or whether it is subject to the sovereign laws of the nations physically storing or warehousing U.S.-based data. Dr. Nobles study will map large datasets of consumer email and cloud-based services, over time, in order to understand how data physically moves through national and international infrastructures. These large-scale visualizations of consumer information will allow for exploration and greater theorization on information policy issues affecting consumer privacy.

McDuffie Wins Wesley-Logan Prize from AHA

Posted Mon, 05 Nov 2012

Erik McDuffie has received the Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association for his book, "Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism." The prize is offered for a book on some aspect of the history of the dispersion, settlement and adjustment, and/or return of peoples originally from Africa. The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history is jointly sponsored by the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life & History. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book in African diaspora history. The AHA Committee on Minority Historians established the prize in 1992 in memory of two early pioneers in the field, Charles H. Wesley and Rayford W. Logan.

Awards & Recognitions: James Loewen

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

2012 Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association; Spirit of America Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.

Awards & Recognitions: Joyce Wright

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

ALA Committee of Accreditation Award for her work on the American Library Association accreditation committee from 2009-2012.

Awards and Recognitions: Sundiata Cha-Jua

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Re-elected President of the National Council for Black Studies for a second two-year term, 2012-2014; Named African American History and Politics correspondent for ACCESS LIVE, WBLM 1580AM.

Rebecca Ginsburg Wins Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Rebecca Ginsburg, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and African American Studies, won the 2012 Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize from the Vernacular Architecture Forum for her book At Home With Apartheid (Virginia, 2011). The prize recognizes a significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes of North America.

Sundiata Cha-Jua Named Senior Editor of The Black Scholar

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Sundiata Cha-Jua, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, was named Senior Editor of The Black Scholar, the third oldest existing Black journal. It is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal devoted to the exploration of cultural, political, social, and economic issues affecting black Americans and other peoples of African descent across the world.

Malaika McKee-Culpepper Wins I-Cubed Grant

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Malaika McKee-Culpepper, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies, has received a $10,000 grant from the Illinois Informatics Institute (I-Cubed) for her curriculum development proposal for AFRO 220: Research Methods in African American Studies. The grant will support the retooling of AFRO 220 to include the use of informatics/academic analytics as part of the learning outcomes for the course. This learning objective will be achieved by combining an existing research project into the course materials to learn about the role of informatics in research methods.

Kevin Franklin Named to XSEDE Board

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Kevin Franklin, Executive Director of the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science (I-CHASS) and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies, has been named to the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) Advisory Board. XSEDE is the most advanced, powerful, and robust collection of integrated digital resources and services in the world. It is a single virtual system that scientists and researchers can use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise.

Ollie Watts Davis Wins Lifetime ACE Award

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

Ollie Watts Davis, a University Scholar, professor of voice in the School of Music, and faculty affiliate of the Department of African American Studies, received the Lifetime ACE (Arts, Culture and Education) Award from 40 North, an arts, culture and entertainment council in Champaign County. Davis was recognized for her tireless service as teacher and mentor for countless young people in the performing arts and her lifetime of achievements in music and teaching. The program is dedicated to cultivating creativity in Champaign County.

Awards & Recognitions: Ruby Mendenhall

Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2012

2012 Ebony Excellence Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Research from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 2012 Outstanding Faculty Mentor from the McNair Scholars Summer Research Institute, Office of Minority Student Affairs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 2012 Scalable Research Challenge Recipient, Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (I-CHASS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.