Celebrating Our 2026 Graduates

The African American & African Diaspora Studies Department sends proud and heartfelt congratulations to the 2026 cohort of graduating students.
 

Class of 2026
 

Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies — Majors

• Nicholas Brown
• Marcha Daniels
• Naomi Flowers
• Ariel Gilbert Keys
• Angel Gilbert  ΦΒΚ
• Josiah Dali
• Esperanza Montero  ΦΒΚ
• Ariana Neal
• Jada Woods

Master of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies — Minors

• Jeff J. Delva
• Jotera Webster
   

Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies — Concentrators

• Zoie Isabella Geronimi
• Brendan Sarpong
   

Master of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies

• Dominique Burden
• Kamille Tracy

Thesis & Senior Project Awards

Faculty Thesis Evaluation Committee confers DISTINGUISHED status on the following theses and senior projects (alphabetical order):

Undergraduate

• Nicholas Brown, BA
  “‘Oasis in Hell’: A Political History of the Rikers Gay Housing Unit” 
  Marsha P. Johnson/STAR Historiography Award
• Zoie Isabella Geronimi, BA
  “Reclaiming Justice Through Technology: Digital Tools for Defendant Empowerment” Manning Marable Social Justice Afro-Futures Award
• Josiah Dali Keys, BA
  “Mourning in Their Own Tense, Living in Their Own Time: Black Gay Poetics of Desire, Mortality, and Temporality During the HIV/AIDS Crisis, 1980–1992” 
  Melvin Dixon Poetics Award
• Esperanza Montero, BA
  “Dancing the Diaspora: Embodied Memory and the Rhythms of La Marimba in Afro-Ecuadorian Culture” 
  Katharine Dunham Ethnokinetics Award
   

Graduate

• Kamille Tracy, MA
  “Afterlives of Marronage: Literary Utopia in Toni Morrison and Sylvia Wynter” 
  Langston Hughes Masters Thesis Award for the Humanities

Departmental Honors & Prizes

• Naomi Flowers, BA
  Black Study(ies) Collective Planning Prize;
  Recognizes a student whose collective planning — fugitive, generative, world-making — builds intellectual community within and beyond Columbia’s walls.
• Josiah Dali Keys, BA
  AAADS Departmental Honors, Columbia College
  The highest distinction the faculty confers. Columbia College caps departmental honors at ten percent of eligible graduating majors. For AAADS, that means one.
   

IRAAS and Souls Awards

• Marcha Daniels, BA
  The Barbara Ransby Leadership Award, conferred by the Editorial Collective of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society
• Nicholas Brown, BA and Josiah Dali Keys, BA
  The IRAAS Prize for Critical Engagement and Social Transformation
   

Previously Awarded

• JOSIAH DALI KEYS, BA
  The Spirit of 1968 Sankofa Prize
  The Spirit of 1968 Sankofa Prize was established by Columbia and Barnard alumni to celebrate students who have made enduring contributions to promoting social justice through civic engagement, political activism, and community building — on campus and beyond. The Sankofa Prize includes a financial award of $2,500 and a mentoring committee of alumni who were friends and comrades of the late student and community activist Zachary Husser, CC ‘70.

Recognized at the Columbia College Academic Awards & Prizes Ceremony

• Nicholas Brown, BA
  Award for Leadership and Service
• Angel Gilbert, BA ΦΒΚ
  Award for Academic Achievement