CU Boulder's SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) have partnered to support graduate students within the CAAAS in their study of sustainability and how it impacts the African and African American communities. This collaboration will support two CAAAS/SPIKE Graduate Fellows for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 academic years.

This partnership is focused upon two areas of top priority for the CU Boulder campus: African and African American communities and sustainability. 

The CAAAS (often referred to as “the Cause”) was established May 2021 by Reiland Rabaka with a mission to uphold Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of “the Beloved Community.” In the context of CU Boulder, the CAAAS creates a community of support for CU faculty and students conducting research in African, African American and African diasporan studies. Within sustainability, these communities face particular challenges that require new scholarship to develop responses and solutions.

The SPIKE Center was formed in fall of 2025 in response to Chancellor Justin Schwartz’s prioritization of sustainability at CU to accelerate sustainability education. A central objective of the SPIKE Center is to support scholarship around communities bearing disproportionate impact from sustainability disruption, and thus the SPIKE Center is grateful for the opportunity to partner with the CAAAS on this important initiative.

“The solutions to the challenges we face in sustainability are so often found at the intersection of creativity, inclusion and the diverse perspectives,” said Max Boykoff, faculty executive director of the SPIKE Center. “We appreciate this partnership with the CAAAS and opportunities to improve our collective work together centering critical elements of justice and equity.”

“Because the mission of the CAAAS is to foster research in African and African American studies, we see this as an exciting opportunity to explore the specific problems our communities face in sustainability,” said Rabaka, director of the CAAAS. “This initiative with the SPIKE Center will empower much needed additional scholarship on this critical issue.”

"At CU Boulder we have a vision of sustainability that is not concentrated in a single school or sector but one that instead sees sustainability pervading every sector, every academic unit and, ultimately, every student," said Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock. "Thus in the spirt of that vision, we are so excited to partner with the CAAAS in supporting sustainability research within the African and African American communities."