The UCSD Black Studies Project (BSP) is an interdisciplinary formation for collaborative research, intellectual exchange, and student engagement in the field of Black Studies. BSP provides a platform for supporting meaningful work among faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from across the UCSD campus, while building sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships with broader San Diego and UC communities. BSP currently focuses on three areas of inquiry: intersectional analysis of race, class, gender, and sexuality; transnational and diasporic studies; and social justice movements. Public programming, research funding, and sponsored intellectual collaborations provide valuable opportunities for the study of black life, history, cultural production, and politics in the US and globally.
Sara E. Johnson co-directed Black Studies Project alongside Dr. Angela Booker between 2021 and 2025, and continues to be an affiliated faculty member. More info on the Black Studies Project here!
Project and Community Highlights
Sherley Anne Williams Writing Residency
Sherley Anne Williams, the noted novelist, poet and essayist, was a professor at UCSD in the Literature Department from 1973-1999 until her premature death. BSP sponsors an biennial residency in her honor that brings a prominent writer to campus for a public talk and series of craft workshops with campus faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students. The program’s inaugural year was 2022-2023.
The Sherley Anne Williams Writing Residency is a collaboration between the Black Studies Project and the UCSD Literature Department’s New Writing Series and Special Collections at Geisel Library, UCSD. Talks are recorded as part of the Archive for New Poetry collection at UCSD.
22-23 Sherley Anne Williams Writer in Residence - Robin Coste Lewis, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry 2015
24-25 Sherley Anne Williams Writer in Residence - aracelis girmay, finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature
For more information about Professor Sherley Anne Williams’ life, work, and legacy, visit the Poetry Foundation or the New York Times.
Depicted: Top left: flyer for the 2023 residency of Robin Coste Lewis. Top Right: Robin Coste Lewis delivers a talk to UCSD students. Middle left: aracelis girmay participates in the 2025 New Writing Series. Middle right: flyer for the 2025 residency of aracelis girmay. Bottom left: Chapbook when i looked up to the altar in the sky, this is what i heard… Poems by Lucille Clifton, selected for BSP by aracelis girmay and Kazim Ali and designed by Lorraine Makone. Bottom right: Poets Brandon Som and Robin Coste Lewis, and BSP co-directors Angela Booker and Sara E. Johnson.
Blackness in Europe Series
In 2025, BSP’s signature event was a campus visit with Fred Kudjo Kuwornu. The seminar included a film screening, talk back and Q&A forum at the UCSD Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts, and smaller forums such as a seminar hosted by Professor Zeinabu Davis with aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters. Kuwornu screened his film We Were Here: The Untold Story of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, which sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists. This year was Kuwornu’s third visit to UCSD, including a prior visit with film and television producer Antonio Dikele Distefano. Kuwornu's films have been exhibited at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (2024), the Museum of the Moving Image (NY), the Library of Congress, and many international film festivals.
Depicted: Top: from left to right; Professor Sara E. Johnson, filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, and Professor Ulrike Strasser in a panel discussion after the screening of We Were Here. Bottom left: Poster for We Were Here. Bottom right: Sara E. Johnson, Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, and Ulrike Strasser ahead of taking the stage.
Blackness in Latin America Series
Co-sponsored between the Black Studies Project and Latin American Studies at UCSD, this series brings leading scholars, artists, and activists to present their work on blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Past events have included Ada Ferrer, winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for her book Cuba: An American History, Rute Fiúza, 2024 activist-in-residence with the SDSU Center for Brazilian Studies, multi-award winning author Adriana Chira, and a screening of Professor Gladys Mitchell-Walthour’s film Black Lives Matter in Latin America with the director, among others.
Depicted: Above left: A post-event photo in Gildred Building with visiting scholar activist Rute Fiúza (pictured in the center in pink and tan) of Brazil’s Mães de Maio, an organization that advocates on behalf of victims of state violence and disapperance. Also in this photo are BSP co-Directors Sara Johnson and Angela Booker (top right), BSP Executive Committee member Professor Jessica Graham (top left), SDSU Center for Brazilian Studies Coordinator Flavia Soares (bottom row with an arm on the table), and LAS Community and Outreach Coordinator Cambria Herrera (bottom right). Above right: Event flyers for the Blackness in Latin America series. Click to enlarge.
Lineage + Inheritance Art Show
In 2025, BSP continued its partnership with the gallery and community non-profit Art Produce located in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. Art Produce and BSP collaborated with Art, Power, Equity. Art, Power, Equity’s co-founder and director Kamaal Martin served as the BSP curator-in residence (under the Artist-in-Residence program) and mounted the show Lineage + Inheritance, which showcased new work of four San Diego-based artists: Mensah Bey, Jean Cornwell, Domonique King, and Andrea Rushing. The month-long exhibit at Art Produce’s gallery and garden included an opening reception, a roundtable with the artists and a drawing workshop led with Jean Cornwell.
Depicted: Top left: Poster for the 2025 Lineage + Inheritance Art Show. Top right: Community members discuss the artwork. Bottom left: View from the outside of the gallery, where the artists are listed alongside BSP. Bottom right: featured curator and artists Kamaal Martin, Jean Cornwell, Andrea Rushing, Mensah Bey, and Dominique King.
Click here for information about BSP, including resources, events, fellowships, grants, residencies, and more.