Melanie Holmes - Department of African American Studies, University of South Carolina

Melanie Holmes - Department of African American Studies, University of South Carolina

From The Black Studies Podcast by Ashley Newby and John E. Drabinski

May 13, 2026 · 54 min · Episode 261

About this episode

The episode features a conversation with Melanie Holmes about her research on Black Power and its significance in the U.S. and Barbados.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Melanie Holmes, who teaches in the Department of African American Studies at University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on the meaning and significance of Black Power across geographies, in particular in the political and cultural space of the United States and Barbados. Her work on these issues can be found in a cluster of publications, including “Beautifully Black!: How Negro History Week and the Black History Movement Influenced Education in and Beyond the Black Power Era,” which is forthcoming in the Journal of African American History. In this conversation, we explore the complex history of resistance to antiblack racism, the relationship between Black study and education, and how historical research…

People in this episode

Host: John Drabinski

Guest: Melanie Holmes

Topics covered

  • Black Studies
  • African American Studies
  • Black Power
  • Antiblack racism
  • Education
  • Historical research

Keywords

  • Black Studies
  • African American Studies
  • Black Power
  • Antiblack racism
  • Education
  • Historical research
  • Melanie Holmes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Department of African American Studies, University of South Carolina, Journal of African American History

Books & works: Beautifully Black!: How Negro History Week and the Black History Movement Influenced Education in and Beyond the Black Power Era

More episodes of The Black Studies Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Black Studies Podcast podcast page.