The 2022 symposium encourages collaboration among scholars, activists, organizers, public historians, curators, public representatives, and others whose research, practice, and expertise is focused on how a broad range of colleges and universities can better understand the formative role of the institution of slavery on American higher education and American society.

The 2022 symposium occurs in a moment of the planetary pandemic, global protests against ongoing racial violence and injustice, and a deepening recognition of and reckoning with the foundational role of slavery in the American academy and American democracy. As such, confronting the legacies of slavery include addressing discriminatory practices and systems that inhibit African American access to higher education to discussions of reparations for slavery and state-sanctioned segregation to challenging entrenched regimes of anti-Black racism and discrimination within academe to ongoing battles to rename places/spaces on campuses nationwide. The Spring 2022 Symposium continues these conversations with a focus on how the ongoing pandemic and global protests against racial injustice are intimately related to the enslavement of Africans and people of African descent and its ongoing legacies in our contemporary world.

Presentation proposals from researchers in a range of disciplines from African American/Africana studies, anthropology, business, cultural studies, education, environmental studies, history, law, medicine, philosophy, politics, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, urban studies, science studies, and other fields are encouraged. Practitioners, activists, artists, organizers, and professionals in cultural and public history institutions and the visual and performing arts are also encouraged to submit proposals. Presentation proposals may take the form of a public conversation, panel discussion, scholarly paper, multimedia presentation, visual art, or performance.