Dr. Mike Jirik
Mike Jirik, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Missouri where he studies Black history and Africana intellectual traditions in North America and the Atlantic World. His research and teaching focus on slavery and universities, slavery and abolition, and the history of Black Studies as well as the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction and Black freedom movements.
Mike Jirik’s research interests are grounded in Africana Studies interpretations of the past. Such interpretations begin with the assertion that peoples of African descent have understandings of their experiences, histories, and cultures on their own terms. His interests include the history of Africana Studies grounded in community and its implications in the university. He also studies the abolition movement and other Black freedom movements across time. He is finishing a book that is a history of Black thought and abolition in higher learning.