Reynolds Journalism Institute
401 S 9th St, Columbia, MO 65201
October 10-11, 2024 | Columbia, MO
Critical Perspectives on the University
Register for the 2024 Black Studies Conference, which will examine higher education as an institution and its impact on communities.
For event questions or accommodations, contact us at muasevents@missouri.edu
Register Now
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Davarian Baldwin
Keynote: Black Studies and Thoughts on an Abolitionist University
Davarian L. Baldwin is a leading urbanist, historian, and cultural critic. His work largely examines the landscape of global cities through the lens of the African Diasporic experience. Baldwin’s related interests include universities and urban development, the racial foundations of academic thought, intellectual and mass culture, Black radical thought and transnational social movements, the politics of heritage tourism, and 20th and 21st Century art, architecture, and urban design. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities (Bold Type Books, 2021).
DAY ONE - Thursday, October 10
8:30 – 9 a.m.
Registration and Continental Breakfast | RJI Second Floor Lobby
9 - 9:15 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
9:15- 10:35 a.m.
Panel 1 | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
The Challenge of Subversive Knowledges
Chair: Daive Dunkley, University of Missouri
Kofi Barima, Jackson State University, "Sankofa: Centering Jamaican Africanism with Ethnography amongst Ghana's Traditional Healers, the Case of Okomfo Nana Kweku Attah"
Sky Mkuti, The Independent Institute of Education (IIE MSA) and University of South Africa (UNISA), "Historical and ongoing challenges of internationalization of African Universities: A critical perspective on South African Universities"
Marion Johnson, University of Missouri, "Fallism: Decolonization and the University"
10:35 – 10:55 a.m.
Break | RJI Second Floor Lobby
10:55 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Panel 2 | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
Campus Protest, Black Radicalism, New Futures
Chair: Anna Fett, University of Missouri
Rasha Abousalem, University of Missouri, "Silencing the First Amendment: Campus Reactions to Student Protests for Palestinian Liberation"
Gaurav Jashnani, Hampshire College, "Black Feminist Radical Movement vs. the Anti-Black University: Learning from Concerned Student 1950"
Cheyenne Ross, Emory University, “Imagining Liberation: The Role of Freedom Dreams in College Student Activism at Emory University”
12:25 p.m. – 1:25 p.m.
Lunch | RJI Palmer Room 100
1:25 – 2:45 p.m.
Panel 3 | RJI Smith Forum Room
The Impact of Black Communities and Black Knowledge Traditions
Chair: Dorothy Atuhura, University of Missouri
Kharoll Ann Souffrant, University of Ottawa; Angela Stanely, York University, (Panel), “Blackness and Community Building in the Neoliberal Academy”
Alassane Abdoulaye Dia, Université Numérique Cheikh Hamidou KANE in Senegal, “Impact of the Harlem Renaissance on Black Diasporic literature and intellectuals”
2:45 – 3:05 p.m.
Break | RJI Second Floor Lobby
3:05-4:25 p.m.
Panel 4 | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
Archives, Knowledge Creation, and Reparations
Chair: Laura Obubo, University of Missouri
Elizabeth Grigg, McMaster University, “Research Ethics and European Knowledge Traditions: Two sides of the same Coin”
Joy Nyokabi Karinge, Syracuse University, “Revisiting the East African Archives at Syracuse University”
Dennis Gill, University of Guyana, “Reparation as a Community Project: the work of ASCRIA in the 1960s/early70s to repair dysfunctional black Guyanese village youth”
5 – 6:30 p.m.
Black Studies and Thoughts on an Abolitionist University
Keynote | Dr. Davarian Baldwin | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
DAY TW0 - Friday, October 11
8:30 – 9 a.m.
Continental Breakfast | RJI Second Floor Lobby
9 – 10:00 a.m.
Panel 1 | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
Slavery and Universities: Critiques in the Past and Present
Chair: Will Mack, University of Missouri
Grace Livingston, University of Puget Sound, "Reckoning at the Seat of Our Trouble: Naming and Facing the University’s Accountability for Enslavement’s Chattel Logics"
Mike Jirik, University of Missouri, "Black Abolitionist Critiques of Slavery’s Colleges"
10:00 – 10:10 a.m.
Break | RJI Second Floor Lobby
10:10 – 11:00 a.m.
Panel 2 | RJI Smith Forum Room 200
International Students and Critiques of DEI in Practice
Chair: Denise Brown, University of Missouri
Jean Clark Charles, University of Ottawa, "Crossed perspectives on the integration of French-speaking international students at the University of Ottawa"
Zulekha Khamisi, Washington State University and Malachi Chukwu, Washington State University, panel, "Are our university institutions preaching wine and drinking water? The discrepancy between stated DEI values and actual practices in Higher Education"
11:10 a.m. – 12:10 p.m.
Concluding Panel: Black Student Movements at Mizzou: Histories, Meaning, and Legacy
Chair: S. David Mitchell, University of Missouri
KJ Byrd, Class of 2025, The Creation of Black Studies at Mizzou
Payton Head, 2015-2016 Missouri Students Association President, Speaker and Equity Strategist
Aidyn Gleason, Class of 2025, The Legion of Black Collegians
12:10 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Closing Lunch & Reception | RJI Palmer Room 100
Music by Syd Bolden & Co., MU Student Cellists