Aaisha Haykal

Chicago State University Project Lead

Aaisha Nafeesah Haykal matriculated from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, in 2009, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Textual Studies and African-American Studies. At Syracuse, Haykal wrote two theses, one on books by Black authors being banned in schools and the other on the political activism seen in the writings of Toni Morrison. In 2011, she received her Master of Science in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Haykal was awarded the American Library Association’s Spectrum Scholarship and at Syracuse she was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. Haykal worked at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston, SC before she accepted the University Archivist position at Chicago State University. She is a member of the Society of American Archivists and the American Library Association.