{"id":21591,"date":"2025-02-05T09:01:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T10:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21591"},"modified":"2025-02-05T10:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T10:23:41","slug":"at-hillmantok-a-digital-h-b-c-u-class-is-in-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21591","title":{"rendered":"At Hillmantok, a Digital H.B.C.U., Class Is in Session"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A video welcoming students to Leah Barlow\u2019s African American studies course inspired a virtual university of free TikTok lectures from Black academics and experts.<\/p>\n

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Leah Barlow, a liberal studies professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, prepared to teach her Intro to African American Studies class this semester as she always does: She put together a syllabus, mapped out assignments and created a TikTok account to make the material as accessible as possible.<\/p>\n

She posted a video on Jan. 20<\/a> welcoming her 35 students to the course. By the next morning, it had surfaced in the algorithm of enough TikTok users that 250,000 people had subscribed to her channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within days, Dr. Barlow\u2019s videos had unintentionally inspired a loosely affiliated network of Black educators, experts and content creators to form what has become known as Hillmantok University, a free \u2014 and unaccredited and unofficial \u2014 online take on the country\u2019s H.B.C.U.s, or historically Black colleges and universities<\/p>\n

In lectures delivered in TikTok-length bursts, and in longer sessions over TikTok Live, instructors are teaching classes in gardening, organic chemistry, culinary arts and other subjects. On the receiving end, organizers say, is an audience of about 16,000 registered users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think that this has been in the making,\u201d Dr. Barlow said in an interview last week from her office in Greensboro, N.C. \u201cYou have accessibility, not just because of TikTok but you also have people who don\u2019t have to be in the ivory tower to have the ability to speak. That is something that I find both beautiful and necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appetite for information also comes at the dawn of a second Trump administration. Dr. Barlow posted her video hours after President Trump was sworn in and swiftly set about dismantling federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Many academics fear a trickle-down effect across education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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@afamstudies<\/a> <\/p>\n

Welcome to Intro to African-American Studies Spring 2025!<\/p>\n

\u266c original sound – Dr. Barlow\u2019s Intro to Af-Am<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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@drdre4000<\/a> <\/p>\n

Welcome to Organic Chemistry 1<\/p>\n

\u266c original sound – Andre Isaacs<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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@pharmunique_<\/a> Welcome to Gardening 101. I am your professor Dr. Dominique Kinsler. Please watch the video in its entirety and work on assignment #1<\/a>. See you back for class. #creatorsearchinsights<\/a> #gardening101<\/a> #gardentok<\/a> #tiktokclass<\/a> #tiktokuniversity<\/a> \u266c original sound – Dominique-PharmUnique IG, YT<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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A video welcoming students to Leah Barlow\u2019s African American studies course inspired a virtual university of free TikTok lectures from Black academics and experts.Leah Barlow, a liberal studies professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, prepared to teach her Intro to African American Studies class this semester as she always does: She put together a syllabus, mapped out assignments and created a TikTok account to make the material as accessible as possible.She posted a video on Jan. 20 welcoming her 35 students to the course. By the next morning, it had surfaced in the algorithm of enough TikTok users that 250,000 people had subscribed to her channel.Within days, Dr. Barlow\u2019s videos had unintentionally inspired a loosely affiliated network of Black educators, experts and content creators to form what has become known as Hillmantok University, a free \u2014 and unaccredited and unofficial \u2014 online take on the country\u2019s H.B.C.U.s, or historically Black colleges and universitiesIn lectures delivered in TikTok-length bursts, and in longer sessions over TikTok Live, instructors are teaching classes in gardening, organic chemistry, culinary arts and other subjects. On the receiving end, organizers say, is an audience of about 16,000 registered users.\u201cI think that this has been in the making,\u201d Dr. Barlow said in an interview last week from her office in Greensboro, N.C. \u201cYou have accessibility, not just because of TikTok but you also have people who don\u2019t have to be in the ivory tower to have the ability to speak. That is something that I find both beautiful and necessary.\u201dThe appetite for information also comes at the dawn of a second Trump administration. Dr. Barlow posted her video hours after President Trump was sworn in and swiftly set about dismantling federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Many academics fear a trickle-down effect across education.<\/p>\n

@afamstudies Welcome to Intro to African-American Studies Spring 2025! \u266c original sound – Dr. Barlow\u2019s Intro to Af-Am <\/p>\n

@drdre4000 Welcome to Organic Chemistry 1 \u266c original sound – Andre Isaacs <\/p>\n

@pharmunique_ Welcome to Gardening 101. I am your professor Dr. Dominique Kinsler. Please watch the video in its entirety and work on assignment #1. See you back for class. #creatorsearchinsights #gardening101 #gardentok #tiktokclass #tiktokuniversity \u266c original sound – Dominique-PharmUnique IG, YT We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21593,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21594,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21591\/revisions\/21594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}