An endowed chair is a singular recognition of a scholar’s work in the academy. To earn one at the most distinguished institution for the teaching of liberal arts in service to the defense of human rights marks an unparalleled achievement. Then, within two months, the key text in defending critical race theory and Afrofuturism won the top research prize (the Anna Julia Cooper and C.L.R. James Prize) from the National Council of Black Studies and the Vatican elected its first Augustinian as Pope in recognition of the social justice mission at Villanova University.
The confluence of these events is unprecedented.
In the next two months, the Graphic History of Hip Hop was a finalist for the Dwayne McDuffie Prize and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice released its monumental report on the history of African Americans as a rationale for reconstructing the state’s economy over the next decade. The global mobilization of the Black Speculative Arts Movement and Afrofuturism as a policy agenda to defend democracy and human rights coincided with the ASALH conference to demand new freedoms of academic inquiry. All of this work symbolizes a career dedicated to justice and human dignity for all people.
Genius Locus 
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