Routes of Passage

Routes of Passage provides a conceptual, substantive, and empirical orientation to the study of African people worldwide. Routes of Passage addresses issues of geographical mobility and geosocial displacement; changing cultural, political, and economic relationships between Africa and its diaspora; interdiaspora relations; political and economic agency and social mobilization, including cultural production and psychocultural transformation; existence in hostile and oppressive political and territorial space; and confronting interconnected relations of social inequality, especially class, gender, nationality, and race.

Ruth Simms Hamilton was a teacher and researcher at Michigan State University for 35 years, having won many awards for her work. Ruth taught courses on international inequality and development, comparative race relations, international migration and diasporas, Third World urbanization and change, and sociological theory. She was Professor of Sociology and Urban Affairs, Director of the African Diaspora Research Project, and a core faculty member of the African Studies Center and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Michigan State University.
     At the time of her death, in November 2003, Ruth was finalizing an 11 volume series on the African Diaspora, Routes of Passage. TIAA-CREF, a national finacial services leader, created the Hamilton Research Scholarship in 2004, in honor of Hamilton's work in minority and urban issues.