The third edition of the Black Studies Summer Seminar 2023
The importance of preservation has come into sharper relief with the continual transformations in digital cultures and the algorithmic shifts that mediate how we access the present and the past. Questions about the Black archival impulse in contemporary life have, thus, become a central question in recent scholarship, like the double issue on “Black Archival Practice” in The Black Scholar and RACAR’s (Revue d'Art Canadienne Canadian Art Review) issue, “salt. For the Preservation of Black Diasporic visual histories.” Yet, Black memory practices remain unbounded by disciplines and academic institutions. Indeed, thinking about restoration and recovery is itself a collective project, a way of honouring the many modes of black history-making.
With this in mind, the 3rd edition of the Black Studies Summer Seminar is themed Black Memory and Archives. We present three free, public, online keynote addresses on May 29, 31 and June 2, 2023, each from noon-2pm. These speakers are leading scholars whose work sits at the edges and intersections of black memory practices, archival studies and acts of preservation.
The first talk on May 29, Erna Brodber in conversation with Ronald Cummings, with respondent Juliane Okot Bitek is co-sponsored with University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning, and the Centre for Caribbean Studies.
On May 31 we hear from Herman Bennett with respondent and U of T colleague Shauna Sweeney.
We finish out the week with a talk on June 2nd by our own SA Smythe.
We’re also excited to host a screening by Alanna Stuart.
The Black Studies Summer Seminar is a week-long research-intensive seminar designed to provide advanced training for emerging Black scholars in Canada. For the past two summers, we have convened generous spaces of stimulating scholarly inquiry for future scholars and researchers in Black Studies here in Canada. The Seminar’s public and closed sessions allow for rigorous engagements with key texts in the field of Black Studies. Our online public events have drawn large audiences to witness keynote talks by scholars such as Katherine McKittrick, Alexander Weheliye, Denise Ferreira Da Silva, Tendayi Sithole, and Annette Joseph-Gabriel.
Rachel Goffe, PhD, RA
Assistant Professor
Department of Human Geography
University of Toronto Scarborough