@chambl91

MSU Students Partner with Capital Area District Libraries to Enhance Summer Reading Challenge

June 4, 2026

As readers across the Ingham County area take part in the Capital Area District Libraries’ (CADL) Summer Reading Challenge, Michigan State University students are helping guide the way — one graphic novel at a time. During the Spring 2026 Semester, students in the Readings in Graphic Narratives (ENG 325) course taught by Julian C. Chambliss, Professor of English, partnered with the CADL to create a comics-focused display.

Research

Ask the Expert: How Detroit and Its People Are Integral to the Rise of Techno Music

May 19, 2025

The story of techno music often focuses on a global narrative without acknowledging that it began in Detroit, Michigan — a place where Black people for decades have harnessed sound…

$3M Mellon-Funded ‘Creativity in the Time of COVID’ Has Local and Global Impact

September 27, 2024

When the world went into lockdown in the face of COVID-19 and while adapting to social distancing, zoom, and masks required, many, in their isolation, turned to art and creative…

African American and African Studies / Arts MSU / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Exhibition / Faculty / News / Research / Scholarship

Afrofuturism & Quilting Exhibition: Exploring Connections Within Teaching, Learning, and Quilt Praxis

April 17, 2024

Stitch by stitch, quilt making has played an integral role in African American history. But the storytelling embedded in the quilts themselves is more than mere tradition. In the Afrofuturism & Quilts: Materializing Black Futures & Black Womxn’s Quilt Legacies Exhibition now on display through Friday, July 19, at the MSU Union Art Gallery, local and national quilt artists and quilt scholars explore embodied and theoretical connections between Afrofuturism and quilt making.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / English / Faculty / News / Production / Programs

‘Afrofantastic:’ Science Fiction, Technology, Black Culture Explored in New Documentary by MSU Professors

June 9, 2023

Afrofuturism has entered more mainstream conversations in the last decade thanks to its influence on fashion and art, notably in the music of Janelle Monae and in the film “Black…

Event / Faculty / News / Research

MSU: A Leader in Comics and Pop Culture Scholarship, Now Host to Comics Studies Society

July 27, 2022

This week, Michigan State University will host the fifth annual conference for the Comic Studies Society, one of the premier academic communities dedicated to comic studies. What makes MSU the…

Event / News / Research

Comic Studies Society Conference Coming to MSU this July

June 6, 2022

The Comic Studies Society (CSS), one of the premier academic communities dedicated to comic studies, will hold its fifth annual conference at Michigan State University from July 28-30 this year. Supported by MSU’s…

Faculty / News

Ask the Expert: MSU Professor Julian Chambliss on “What is Afrofuturism?”

June 2, 2022

“Afrofuturism” was first coined by author and culture critic Mark Dery in his 1993 essay, “Black to the Future.” Since then, Afrofuturism has grown as an artform, practice, methodology, and…

Faculty / News / Programs

MSU to Collaborate with Comic Studies Society on Conferences and Scholarship 

September 14, 2021

Michigan State University and the Comics Studies Society (CSS) are pleased to announce the formation of an ongoing, multiyear collaboration that will begin with the 2022 CSS conference taking place on MSU’s campus.…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News

Faculty Voice: Forging a New Legacy

September 9, 2021

Julian Chambliss is a Professor in the Department of English, core faculty for the Consortium for Critical Diversity in Digital Age Research, and Val Berryman Curator of History for the MSU Museum. He wrote this "Faculty Voice" article about Marvel Studios' newly released movie, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" for MSU Today.