About this Event
IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL
Recognizing that Black Studies exists both within and outside of the academy, we have invited a diverse group of university and independent scholars, graduate students, community archivists, librarians, and public historians, to consider The Next Century of Black Studies in a hybrid conference.
Please register even if you are attending online. Programs will be streamed on our YouTube channel.
Though we convene at a time when book bans, academic retrenchment, and curriculum purging poses real harm and threat to the field, this conference offers 3 days of dynamic and purposeful presentations including roundtable conversations, hands-on workshops, short presentations, plenaries, and opportunities for discussion and dialogue.
Grounded in the Schomburg Center’s commitment to prepare for its next century of service, and in recognition of the significance of the Schomburg Center’s collection, its centrality to the work of Black Studies scholarship in the past and present, and the possibilities for how it will shape the future(s) of the discipline, this conference serves as a capstone event to our centennial celebrations.
This hybrid conference will be in person and online, with recorded sessions remaining accessible online. Key themes confirmed thus far include, but are not limited to:
- Black Studies and the University
- Black Studies and AI
- How Scholars Can Connect Readers to Primary Sources
- Centering Black Collections in American and Global Scholarship
- The Nexus of Black Studies and Black Collections
- Possibilities of Black Studies in the UK
- Arturo Schomburg’s Legacy Today
- Black Marxism for the Next Century of Black Studies
- Building an Emerging Field within Global Black Studies
- From Ghana and South Africa: Geographies of Black Studies
- School Librarians and Expanding Accessibility to Black Studies
- Stories of Gay Black Men’s Being, Belonging, and World-Making in New York
- Stewarding Black Studies in the 21st Century and Beyond
- There is No Black Studies Without Afro-Latin America
- Diasporic Black Feminist Archival Interventions
- Creating and Editing WikiData with the Black Bibliography Project
There will be a special episode of the Black Studies Podcast! And, more.
SAVE THE DATES.
Set a reminder. Return to this site for more information as it becomes available.
The program will be in person and online. Many, though perhaps not all presentations will be live streamed.
Conference streaming links will be place online and in this Eventbrite listing as information becomes available. Also consult the online conference page: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2026/09/26/schomburg-center-hold-next-century-black-studies-conference-nov-16-18-2026
If there are specific questions or needs regarding the conference, please email [email protected].
FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED The conference is free, but due to space constraints registration is requested for all in person participants. We generally overbook to ensure a full house, so we recommend that you arrive early.
GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed in the auditorium or other meeting rooms.
E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces and people safe.
AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image and audio for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.
PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].
Please note that personal and professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.
ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].
Draft Conference Program (As of 9.29.26))
Monday, November 16
9 AM | Check-in/Coffee
10 AM | Opening Remarks | Joy L. Bivins, Schomburg Center Director
10:30 AM | Keynote
11:30 AM | Short Break
11:45 AM | 4 Concurrent Programs:
11:45 AM | Black Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies Now?: Arturo Alfonso Schomburg’s Legacy Today
11:45 AM | Reconsidering "Black Marxism" for the Next Century of Black Studies
11:45 AM | School Librarians and Expanding Students Accessibility to Black Studies
11:45 AM | Editando la Amefricanidade: Black Publishing Houses and the Next Century of Black Studies
1:15 PM | Lunch Break
2:15 PM | 4 Concurrent Programs:
2:15 PM | Why Afro-European Studies? Building an Emerging Field Within Global Black Studies
2:15 PM | The Generative Futures of African American History in the Age of A.I.
2:15 PM | A Decade of Black Feminist Mentorship in Harlem
2:15 PM | Stories of Black Gay Men’s Being, Belonging, & World-Making in New York
3:45 PM | Break
4:00 PM | 4 Concurrent Programs:
4 PM | Stewarding Black Studies in 21st Century and Beyond: The Work of Sustaining Our Intellectual Life
4 PM | No Hay Estudios Negros Sin Afro-Latinoamérica (There Is No Black Studies Without Afro-Latin America)
4 PM | Uploading Black Lives: Creating and Editing WikiData with the Black Bibliography Project
4 PM | Spirals of Possibility: Diasporic Black Feminist Archival Interventions
5:30 PM | Reception
Tuesday, November 17
9 AM | Check-in/Coffee
10AM | 3 Concurrent Programs:
10 AM | The Archives Are for All of Us: How Scholars Can Connect Readers to Primary Sources
10 AM | Geographies of Black Studies
10 AM | For My People: Centering Black Collections in American and Global Scholarship
11:30 AM | Break
11:45 AM | 3 Concurrent Programs:
11:45 AM | Roundtable Discussion: From K–12 to the Academy: Archival Pedagogies for the Future of Black Studies
11:45 AM | The Nexus of Black Studies and Black Collections: Past & Future Visions
11:45 AM | The Im/Possibilities of Black Studies in the UK’s Emergent Neoliberal Fascist Conjuncture
1:15 PM | Lunch
2:30 PM | 3 Concurrent Programs:
2:30 PM | Amefricanidade From Below: From Obligation to Reciprocal Black Solidarity
2:30 PM | Black Studies and the University
2:30 PM | Black Studies and AI
6:30 PM | Between the River and the Railroad Tracks: A Book Launch, with Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood
Wednesday, November 18
9 AM | Check-in/Coffee
10 AM | Black Studies Podcast with Ashley Newby and John Drabinski
11 AM | Break
11:15 AM | Christen Smith in conversation with Brent Hayes Edwards
12:15 PM | Lunch
1:15 PM | Plenary conversation
2:15 PM | Closing Remarks
The Next Century of Black Studies Conference is supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Event venue & nearby stays
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.