Minkah Makalani
Ph.D., 2004, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies

Contact
- E-mail: makalani@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-471-4745
- Office: GWB 2.202B
- Campus Mail Code: D7200
Interests
African American; Caribbean; Diaspora; Black Political Thought; Intellectual History; Race and Racial Identity; Empire; Coloniality; Hip-Hop
Biography
Minkah Makalani’s research and teaching focus on intellectual history, black political thought, radical social movements, Caribbean independence, Black Power, race and racial identity, and hip-hop.. His first book, In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917-1939 (University of North Carolina Press, 2011), examines the black radical encounter within organized Marxism among early twentieth century Caribbean radicals in Harlem and London, and considers how these activist-intellectuals drew on their experiences of racial oppression, colonial domination, and diasporic interactions prompted their independent political organizing and informed their engagement with western radical thought to articulate a black internationalist politics. He is also co-editor of Escape from New York: The New Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem (University Press of Minnesota, 2013), with Davarian Baldwin. His articles have appeared in Small Axe, Social Text, South Atlantic Quarterly, Souls, The Journal of African American History, and Women, Gender, and Families of Color.
He is currently at work on two book projects. The first, Calypso Conquered the World: C. L. R. James and the Politically Unimaginable in Trinidad, examines C. L. R. James’s return to Trinidad from 1958-1962, when he put forward his most developed thinking about democracy, political leadership, and the challenges facing postcolonial societies, particularly the problems that confronted Caribbean independence given the region’s historical entanglements in colonialism and slavery. The second, Words Past the Margin: Black Thought and the Impossible, is a collection of essays on black radical thought as it appears in black politics and popular culture, including the 2014 Ferguson uprising, the cinema of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, the Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths, and freedom in hip-hop sampling.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Black Women’s Intellectual Labor and the Social Spaces of Black Radical Thought in Harlem,” Race Capital? Harlem as Setting and Symbol. Eds. Andrew Fearnley and Daniel Matlin. Columbia University Press, 2018.
“‘West Indian Through and Through, and Very British’: C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary, Coloniality, and Theorizing Caribbean Independence,” Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket: C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary. Eds. Dave Featherstone, Chris Gair, Christian Hogsbjerg, and Andrew Smith. Duke University Press, 2018.
"The Politically Unimaginable in Black Marxist Thought," Small Axe Volume 22, Number 2, July 2018 (no. 56): 18-34.
"Black Lives Matter and the Limits of Formal Black Politics," South Atlantic Quarterly 116, no. 3 (2017): 529-52.
"An Incessant Struggle against White Supremacy: The International Congress against Imperialism and the International Circuits of Black Radicalism," Outside In: The Transnational Circuitry of US History. Eds. Andrew Preston and Doug Rossinow. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Escape from New York! The New Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem, co-editor with Davarian Baldwin. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917-1939. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
Courses
AFR 315S • Liberation In Afr Diaspora-Wb
31030 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
GC
(also listed as LAS 310)
AFR 381 • Black Radical Traditions- Wb
31225 • Spring 2021
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
AFR 317E • Liberation In Afr Diaspora
30539 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM RLP 0.104
GC
(also listed as LAS 310)
AFR 390 • Black Studies Theory I
30260 • Fall 2019
Meets W 11:00AM-2:00PM GWB 1.138
AFR 372C • Black Freedom Movement
30520 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 1.120
CD
(also listed as AMS 321, LAS 322)
AFR 390 • Black Studies Theory I
30810 • Fall 2018
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM GWB 1.138
AFR 376 • Senior Seminar
29905 • Spring 2018
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM GEA 127
Wr
AFR 395P • Subjects In Prof In Afr
30635 • Fall 2017
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM PAR 310
UGS 303 • Worlds Of Hip Hop
63760-63770 • Fall 2017
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:00PM BUR 130
ID
AFR F374D • Art, Theft, And Hip-Hop
79845 • Summer 2017
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM GEA 114
CD
(also listed as AMS F325, C L F323)
AFR 372C • Black Freedom Movement
30235 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 101
CD
(also listed as AMS 321, LAS 322)
AFR 381 • Black Radical Traditions
30455 • Spring 2017
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM MEZ 1.104
(also listed as AMS 391, HIS 381)
AFR 317E • Diaspora: Race/Natn/Resist
30090 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 103
GC
(also listed as ANT 310L)
AFR F372E • Worlds Of Hip Hop
80115 • Summer 2016
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM CLA 0.106
Wr
(also listed as AMS F321, HIS F366N, URB F354)
AFR 317E • Liberation In Afr Diaspora
29320 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM PAR 101
GC
(also listed as LAS 310)
AFR 376 • Senior Seminar
29570 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM GWB 1.130
Wr
AFR 385 • Race, Empire, And Modernity
29770 • Fall 2015
Meets W 12:00PM-3:00PM GWB 4.112
AFR F372E • Worlds Of Hip Hop
80745 • Summer 2015
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM GWB 1.130
(also listed as AMS F321, HIS F366N, URB F354)
AFR 372C • Black Freedom Movement
29695 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM GWB 2.204
CD
AFR 372F • Race, Empire, And Modernity
29744 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM GEA 114
(also listed as LAS 322)
AFR 317E • Liberation In Afr Diaspora
30450 • Fall 2014
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM PAR 206
GC
(also listed as LAS 310)
AFR 372C • Mixed Race And Sex In America
30511 • Fall 2014
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 105
CD
(also listed as AMS 321)
AFR 317E • Diaspora: Race/Nation/Resistnc
30610 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM JES A207A
GC
(also listed as ANT 310L)
AFR 381 • Black Radical Traditions
30860 • Spring 2014
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM BEL 232
AFR 317E • Liberation In African Diaspora
30280 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.102
(also listed as LAS 310)
AFR 372C • Black Freedom Movement
30310 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 2.124
AFR 317E • Diaspora: Race/Nation/Resistnc
30225 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM UTC 1.104
(also listed as ANT 310L)
AFR 386 • Narr African Diaspora Studies
30435 • Fall 2012
Meets T 12:30PM-3:30PM BEL 224K
AFR 317E • Liberation In African Diaspora
30387 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SZB 416
AFR 376 • Senior Seminar
30573 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM JES A230
Publications
“A Biracial Identity or a New Race? The Historical Limitations and Political Implications of a Biracial Identity.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society 3, no. 4 (Fall 2001): 83-112.
“Introduction: Diaspora and the Localities of Race,” Social Text 98 (Spring 2009): 1-9.
Black Studies Faculty Highlight
Faculty Highlight: Dr. Minkah Makalani, Assistant Professor of AADS by Ahsika Sanders
Faculty Highlight: Dr. Minkah Makalani, Assistant Professor of AADS by Ahsika Sanders
This Spring semester, UT welcomed new faculty member Dr. Minkah Makalani to Austin as the newest addition to the African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) department.
Dr. Makalani, the author of ‘In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917 -1939’ (University of North Carolina Press, 2011), taught two undergraduate courses in the Spring semester. One course was the AFR senior seminar, and the other course was a broad look at social movements among African peoples. These courses aligned with Dr. Makalani’s personal research interests, which include the African diaspora, intellectual history, theory, social movements, race, and racial formation. “The [senior] seminar was a look at the African diaspora intellectuals and took a historian’s approach. We looked at: what are some of the things that preoccupy intellectuals in the African-American diaspora? What are some of their concerns? Then we came all the way up into the inter-colonial period and looked at different figures and different movements. All of the students got really animated about different elements so the class went great.”
“The other course, Liberation in the African Diaspora, [is] just trying to give students a broad introduction to what liberation movements in the African diaspora looked like. We discussed what ‘movement’ really means and we defined African. Then we talked about how to look at the two during slavery, so slave rebellions and most prominently the Haitian revolution.” Dr. Makalani said the course closed with a broad look at the Black Power movement, including the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, and Black consciousness in South Africa. The course also ended with a look at hip-hop, in particular how this music reflects a certain political consciousness in an effort to respond to circumstances. The course is designed to accommodate 35 to 40 students, and Dr. Makalani said that he will structure it in the future so that it will work as a basic, introductory level course for freshmen and sophomores, specifically AFR majors who might move on to take other AFR courses.
Dr. Makalani said the atmosphere at Rutgers, where he taught for eight years, differs from UT in that Rutgers was a commuter campus for faculty, which limited interactions between co-workers. “Our interactions tended to not be on campus, so that made it a bit more difficult to have the institution be a part of the intellectual community,” he said. “Here, if there is a talk on Wednesday that I might be interested in, it’s only a 15 minute bike ride to campus, whereas it was a four-hour round-trip commute at Rutgers. In that sense, the intellectual community was a bit more difficult to build and be a part of. “
Dr. Makalani also said the numbers of Black faculty are far greater here than they were at Rutgers. “Being in the African and African Diaspora Studies department specifically, that means that my immediate colleagues are all kind of interested in the same kinds of things - or at least engaging in the same kinds of questions. Whereas [at Rutgers] I was in the history department where, for the most part, my colleagues were not interested in the same kinds of field questions. That meant that I had to have those interactions and exchanges with people from English, Sociology, American Studies, but because no one really lived in the area it made it even more difficult so I kind of feel like I have come into the best possible situation in that regard,” Dr. Makalani said. “I’ve also found that with my new colleagues, there are [many] more rich discussions kind of immediately,” he said. “You don’t have to establish the ground floor to have that discussion. “
Although he is originally from Kansas City, MO, Dr. Makalani lived and worked in New York off and on for almost 20 years, the last 10 of which were straight through. New York became home to him, so moving to Texas has been a big transition. “I’m looking forward to the coming years, working more with the students. In many ways the student life reminds me of my undergrad years where you have a very small Black student population on a very large predominantly White campus. The kind of issues and concerns that I see students talking about and raising are some of the same things that I remember from undergrad, so I’ve been heartened by what students are talking about, and the kinds of debates that they have with one another that I hear before and after class.”
Dr. Makalani closed by noting, “I’m looking forward to getting more involved with them and, be they [a] Black studies major or not, helping give some insight to the things that they will do. I am much more involved in the student life [here] than I was at Rutgers, but that is a positive change.”