Black Studies and the Crises of Our Times

Black Studies and the Crises of Our Times responds broadly to the impact of the field since its formal establishment over 50 years ago. This multi-day conference, organized by the Department of Africana and American Studies in conjunction with the Humanities Institute, will articulate why we need Black Studies more than ever for both its national critique and its global articulations of political community.

Black Studies helps us make sense of current global relations and their significance to Black life and beyond

One account of Black Studies understands the field as emerging from crises produced when Black people demanded full citizenship rights in the USA. An alternate account concerns itself with Black peoples’ struggle to write a counter-history of the world we inhabit: the manner in which it has both been made and understood.

The 2025 HI Annual Conference draws from the second account of Black Studies, considering how scholars in the field bring different accounts of the world that we have made to intellectual conversations, dialogues and debates. Guest scholars, artists and activists will apply a wide array of political, theoretical, methodological and activist positions to problems internal to the field while examining, most importantly, how Black Studies helps us make sense of current global relations and their significance to Black life and beyond.

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Parking Information for Guests to Campus

Temporary parking permits are available for non-UB conference attendees for pick-up at the conference check-in table. For detailed information about guest parking options at UB, click here.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, March 12 | Opening Reception and Keynote

Location: Center for the Arts Atrium and Screening Room (112 CFA) | Link to map

5:00 p.m. | Reception

Please join us in the Center for the Arts Atrium for a casual reception including light fare and beverages.

5:45 p.m. | Welcome, Keynote, and Opening Panel

Center for the Arts Screening Room (112 CFA)

Thursday, March 13 | Full Conference Day

Locations: Student Union Landmark Room (210 Student Union) and Center for the Arts Screening Room (112 CFA)

Student Union Landmark Room (210 Student Union)

Click here for map

8:30 a.m. | Breakfast

Breakfast will be provided.

9:00 a.m. | Welcome and Acknowledgments

9:15 a.m. | Session 1

11:00 a.m. | Break

11:15 a.m. | Session 2

1:00 p.m. | Lunch

Lunch will be provided.

1:45 p.m. | Session 3

3:30 p.m. | Break

Move to Center for the Arts Screening Room (CFA 112)

Click here for map

4:00 p.m. | Session 4

5:45 p.m. | End of Day

Friday, March 14 | Morning Session

Location: Student Union Landmark Room (210 Student Union) | Link to map

9:30 a.m. | Breakfast

Breakfast will be provided.

10:00 a.m. | Closing Panel | How to Think in a Crisis (2)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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March 12-14, 2025

  • Wednesday, March 12 | Evening | Opening Keynote and Reception
  • Thursday, March 13 | Full Day | Talks, Panels, Discussion
  • Friday, March 14 | Morning

Convened by Rinaldo Walcott, Professor and Carl V. Granger Chair of the department of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Keynote Speaker

Deborah E. McDowell, Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies and former Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, University of Virginia

Speakers
2/3/25

Peter James Hudson

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

2/22/25

Deborah E. McDowell

Alice Griffin Professor of English, English/African American and African Studies, University of Virginia

1/27/25

Biko Mandela Gray

Associate Professor of Religion, Syracuse University

1/27/25

Zalika U. Ibaorimi (n0humaninv0lved)

Assistant Professor of Black Sexualities, The Ohio State University

2/22/25

Mopelolade Ogunbowale

Assistant Professor, Africana and American Studies, University at Buffalo

1/27/25

Christy Garrison-Harrison, PhD

Assistant Professor of History and Women's Studies, Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

1/27/25

Nicholas Brady

Assistant Professor, Critical Black Studies, Bucknell University

1/27/25

M. Nicole Horsley

Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Screen Cultures, Ithaca College


“zuri arman is a writer, curator, and cultural organizer from Charlotte, North Carolina. As a PhD candidate in the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University, their dissertation project interrogates the function and form of methodological thinking in the modern production of knowledge relative to the autopoetic reproduction of black social captivity in politics and aesthetics. ”
1/27/25

zuri arman

“An interdisciplinary scholar of Black diasporas, W. Chris Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Women & Gender Studies Institute and the Department of History at the University of Toronto. ”
2/22/25

W. Chris Johnson

2/22/25

Jarrett Martin Drake

Assistant Professor, Africana and American Studies, University at Buffalo

2/22/25

Sirma Bilge

Professor, Sociology, Universite de Montreal

2/22/25

Jemima Pierre

Distinguished Faculty of Arts Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies

University of British Columbia, Vancouver

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(Click on arrows to see all the conference speakers. Click on image for individual speaker bios.)
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