Congratulations, African American Studies Graduates, 2019!

 2019 African American Studies Dept. degree recipients
Pictured: PhD recipients, Phoenix Alexander, Lauren Meyer, Dana Pilgrim,
Claire Schwartz, Demar Lewis IV (MPHIL degree recipient) | Stokes Photography

Congratulations, Class of 2019! Members of this year’s graduating class include four PhD recipients, three Masters degree recipients and seven recipients of the Bachelor’s degree.

One graduating student won a prize sponsored by the African American Studies Department.  
Eleanor Pritchett won the distinguished Williams Pickens Prize for her senior essay,  “Transcendentally Material”: Aaron Douglas and the Visuals of Publishing in the Harlem Renaissance.”
 
PhD recipient Claire Schwartz  (American Studies) was awarded the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Prize administered by the History of Art and African American Studies  departments in recognition of excellence in essay writing for her dissertation, A Sidelong Glance: Art, Archives, and Visions of Blackness in the Postmodern City.” 
 
In addition to department prizes, African American Studies graduating senior Eleanor Pritchett was awarded the Professor John Blassingame ’71 Ph.D. Award for Outstanding Research in African American History & Culture sponsored by the Afro-American Cultural Center. 
 

More about Awards & Prizes 

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2019 GRADUATES AND DEGREE RECIPIENTS

Yale College
Baccalaureate Recipients in African American Studies

Markus Reneau – Distinction in the major
Alexis Payne – Distinction in the major; Double-major/English
Eleanor Pritchett – Distinction in the major
Liam Riley – Distinction in the major, Double major/Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Nia Jones – Double-major/Political Science
Hannah Billingsley
Naiya Speight-Leggett, Double-major/Political Science
 
 

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
PhD, Masters of Arts and Masters of Philosophy Degrees
      Lauren Meyer, PhD, Yale University   Danya Pilgrim, PhD, Yale University

                Graduates Lauren Meyer and Danya Pilgrim receive PhD degrees

PhD Degree Recipients in African American Studies (with a combined program)

Phoenix Alexander (combined with Engl;ish) has been appointed  as the Science Fiction Collections Librarian in the Special Collections and Archives of the University of Liverpool Library 

Dissertation: “Voices with Vision: Writing Black, Feminist Futures in 20th Century African America”

Lauren Meyer (combined with American Studies) in 2020, will begin an appointment as Lecturer in Africn American Studies at Yale University.  
Dissertation: “Defending Black Womanhood: African American Women Lawyers and the Emergence of a Black Feminist Juris Prudence”
 
Danya Pilgrim (combined with American Studies)   
Dissertation: “Gastronomic Alchemy: How Black Philadelphia Caterers Transformed Taste into Capital, 1790-1925”
 
Claire Schwartz (combined with American Studies)  
Dissertation: “A Sidelong Glance: Art, Archives, and Visions of Blackness in the Postmodern City”
 

Recipients of the Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Philosophy (MPHIL) Degrees

Stephane Andrade (combined with Sociology) MPHIL
Demar Lewis IV (combined with Sociology)  MPHIL
Cera Smith  (combined with English) MA 

Updated May 23, 2019