Ta-Nehisi Coates to Speak at UVA-Hosted Conference on African American Intellectual History

This week, the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) will hold its ninth annual conference from March 8-9, 2024 at the University of Virginia. Hosted by the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, the two-day event will feature a keynote speech by noted author, journalist and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates and a performance by composer JoVia Armstrong. Conference sessions will showcase some of today’s most compelling scholarship on African American intellectual history and bring together scholars and authors from around the world.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Reparations: Past, Present, and Future,” and the meeting will engage attendees in some of the issue’s key themes. Papers and panels of scholars, activists, educators and artists will grapple with the varied meanings of reparations and reparative justice, and panelists will discuss how their work advances ideas about informs idea of reparations in theory and in practice.

Thursday, March 7

Welcome reception and introduction to the “Swords into Ploughshares: The Future of the Robert E. Lee Statue,” an innovative project that involved melting Charlottesville’s statue of Robert E. Lee and using the bronze to create make a new work of public art.

Friday, March 8

The conference begins with an array of sessions on reparations, a keynote speech by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and an awards ceremony to celebrate the innovative scholarship being produced by members of AAIHS.

Saturday, March 9

Sessions continue on a variety of topics on Black life in the United States, and special sessions will showcase the work of noted international authors. A final reception will feature a musical performance by percussionist, sound artist and composer JoVia Armstrong.

The complete program of events is available from the AAIHS website.