The University of Texas Libraries recently recognized a group of student scholars for their use of our groundbreaking Black Queer Studies Collection. The Monica K. Roberts Graduate Award ($1,200 prize / $600 honorable mention) and the Hogan/Schell Undergraduate Award ($800 prize / $400 honorable mention) honor excellence in student scholarship and creative endeavors that deeply engage the collection and the larger field of Black Queer Studies.
This year’s Awards Committee honored the winners and honorable mentions of the third annual Black Queer Studies Student Awards at the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies graduation ceremony on April 29, 2025.
The Monica K. Roberts Graduate Award went to KB Brookins, an MFA student in the English Department’s New Writers Project creative writing program. The committee was impressed with KB’s current collection-in-progress entitled VINTAGE, in both the quality of the writing, as well as the representation of the experiences of Black Queer teens in Texas. VINTAGE explores Black Queer kinship and chosen family, as well as profound grief and loss, while weaving together a coming-of-age narrative through verse. The committee found it a deeply moving collection, one that we hope will make it to print and wider circulation. In addition, KB wrote an excellent Artist Statement that connected their work to the scholarship, poetry, and writing in the Libraries’ Black Queer Studies Collection. These awards are a celebration of the collection, and KB’s winning submission builds beautifully on this legacy.
The Hogan/Schell Undergraduate Award winner is Breigh Plat, a Plan II and African and African Diaspora Studies major. Breigh’s submission was a selection from their thesis, entitled “Deisre(ability): Black Femme Affect and Abjection in Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One”. The committee recognizes this thesis as one of the best works of undergraduate scholarship they’ve ever read. They were impressed with the quality of the writing, the engagement with other works of scholarship, and Breigh’s clarity and originality in the analysis and conclusions. Additionally, the awards are a celebration of the Libraries’ Black Queer Studies Collection, and Breigh highly engaged with the work of other authors and artists represented in the collection.
The 2025 Honorable Mention for the graduate award is Toluwani Roberts, a PhD student in African and African Diaspora Studies. Toluawni’s submission was a selection from her dissertation, entitled “Healing, Religiosity, and Queer African Feminism in Embracing My Shadow: Growing Up Lesbian in Nigeria by Unoma Azuah”. In this piece Toluwani created, with great attention and care, a thorough literature review of Queer African Feminism, creating a radical canon and archive of Queer African literature. Our librarians will be referring back to her lit review and works cited list to identify new books for the Libraries’ collection. Toluwani’s exceptional citational practice combined with her close reading and analysis of Azuah’s memoir left a great impression on the faculty committee.
The 2025 undergraduate Honorable Mention is Otofu Ayaku, who is majoring in Art and Art History and African and African Diaspora Studies. Otofu’s submission was an interview with Black Queer artist Shikeith about his sculpture Black Balloon III. Otofu designed the interview as part of their research contributing to the current AGBS exhibit Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, 1924-2024, which features Shikeith’s sculpture. Otofu envisioned the interview as a contribution to the archive of Black Queer American Art and to address the gaps in information and educational resources on works by Black Queer artists like Shikeith. The faculty committee was impressed with Otofu’s initiative and archival vision that underpinned the interview.
Students enrolled in any college or school in the University of Texas system are eligible to apply. Submissions must be from the past two academic years, regardless of where the work was created (including at previous institutions). Winning submissions must draw upon the body of work in the Libraries’ Black Queer Studies Collection and must include citations and references to books, films, works, or other materials in the collection.
The awards are administered by the Libraries with additional support from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department, the Warfield Center for African American Studies, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. Thanks to the many staff and faculty who made these awards possible this year.
