American Studies Conference

Held every February during Black History Month, the conference brings internationally renowned scholars to campus to present their work and engage with faculty, staff, students, alumni and Twin Cities residents. It seeks to highlight the links between scholarship, activism and civic engagement.

Each year a different theme is selected based on pertinent issues.

2018 Conference

Yuichiro Onishi – “Transpacific Antiracism: Afro-Asian Solidarity in 20th Century Black America, Japan, and Okinawa”

2017 Conference

Professor Clayborne Carson, Professor Duchess Harris, Niara Williams, and Carl Eller – Black History Month Panel Discussion

2016 Conference

Professor Karin Aguilar-San Juan – Vietnam Anti-War Movement Symposium

2015 Conference

Christina Greer – “Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream: A Discussion of Black Ethnics”

2014 Conference

Laura Kina and Ralina L Joseph – “Mixed Race America: Identities and Culture.”

2013 Conference

Psyche Williams-Forson – “Alternatives in a Changing Food World.”

2012 Conference

Dr. Julianne Malveaux – “Economic Justice in the 21st Century.”

2011 Conference

Ruth Wilson Gilmore –  “The World in Crisis: What Is to Be Done?”

2010 Conference

Pedro Noguera – “Challenging Racial Inequality in Our Schools.”

2009 Conference

Cheryl I. Harris and David Roediger – “Whiteness in the Age of Obama.”

2008 Conference

Harriet A. Washington – “Racism in the Name of Science.”

2007 Conference

Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley – “Visualizing Race: Three Episodes.”

2006 Conference

David Naguib Pellow – “The Movement for Global Environmental Justice and Human Rights.”

2005 Conference

Dr. Joy James – “African Americans and the Prison Industrial Complex”

2004 Conference

Kathleen Cleaver – “Fifty Years Since Brown V. Board of Education: Where Are We Now?”

2003 Conference

Paul Carter Harrison – “Representing Blackness: From the Black Arts Movement of the Sixties to the Present”

2002 Conference

Dr. James S. Jackson – “The Psychology of Being Black in Twenty-First Century America”

2001 Conference

Dr. Manning Marable and Distinguished Lecturer: Quincy Troupe – “The Politics of Writing Black”

2000 Conference

Hortense Spillers – Inaugural Lecture