Futures: A RaceB4Race Symposium

In 2019, RaceB4Race convened for the first time with the aim of providing space to share research on race in the premodern world. The community that came together that weekend knew the study of race and its construction in the premodern past is a vital undertaking. They knew that to study the past is inherently an interrogation of the present.

A lot has happened in the seven years since that first meeting. Amidst everything, RaceB4Race has been a space for people, regardless of their relationship to the academy, to gather and share ideas about race in the premodern world and the lingering grasp it has on our world today.

The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies' tagline reads, "Engage the past. Define the future." This symposium asks us to address the latter half of the provocation. It is time for us to turn our gaze to the future and put our critical and scholarly practices into a creative, speculative, and course-altering mode.

How can looking to the premodern past position us to think more productively and capaciously about our future? Conversely, how can thinking about our futures inform the way we understand the works and worlds of the premodern past? What will future generations think about the work we engage in today? What is the value behind speculative thinking when it comes to premodern critical race studies?

Join us at Futures: A RaceB4Race Symposium, where we will consider the stakes behind the work we do and the ways it stands to shape the futures we envision.

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Speakers

Cecilio M. Cooper Science History Institute

Claire Crow Yale University

Amrita Dhar University of California - San Diego

Sarah LaVoy-Brunette Cornell University

Roger L. Martínez-Dávila University of Colorado - Colorado Springs

Alexandra Montero Peters Northwestern University

Afrodesia McCannon New York University

Vimala C. Pasupathi Hofstra University

With a keynote speaker to be announced soon. 

Livestream information

This event will be livestreamed by ASU Live. The recording will be available to watch on the ACMRS YouTube channel afterwards.

Travel information

For information regarding lodging near the ASU Tempe Campus, please visit the Travel Information for ASU visitors page.

This event will take place in Carson Ballroom in Old Main. The closest parking garage to the venue is the Fulton Center parking structure. Learn more about parking rates here