9th Annual Benjamin A. Quarles Conference 2026

Call for Papers

The 9th Annual Benjamin A. Quarles Conference

Theme: 100 Years of Black History:  Remembering the past, Interpreting the present, Envisioning the future.

Conference Dates:  October 22 - 23, 2026

Venue:  Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Submission Deadline:  July 31, 2026

Commemorate a century since the formal institutionalization of Black History as a field of study, often traced to Carter G. Woodson's founding of Negro History Week in 1926.

Call for Papers
Benjamin Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute
College of Liberal Arts, Morgan State University

9th Annual Conference

Theme: 100 Years of Black History: Remembering the Past, Interpreting the Present, Envisioning the Future

The Benjamin Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute at Morgan State University invites scholars, educators, graduate students, independent researchers, and public historians to submit proposals for its 9th Annual Conference. This year’s theme, “100 Years of Black History: Remembering the Past, Interpreting the Present, Envisioning the Future,” commemorates a century since the formal institutionalization of Black history as a field of study, often traced to Carter G. Woodson’s founding of Negro History Week in 1926.

This conference seeks to reflect critically and expansively on the intellectual, political, cultural, and global trajectories of Black history over the past century. We are particularly interested in work that interrogates how Black history has been produced, contested, institutionalized, and mobilized across time and space.

Conference Details

Location: Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland

Format: In-person (with possible hybrid components)

Dates: October 22-23, 2026

Submission Deadline:  July 31, 2026

Notification of Acceptance: August 16, 2026

We welcome individual papers and fully formed panel proposals from across disciplines, including history, African Diaspora studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, literature, cultural studies, education, and related fields.

Suggested Themes and Topics

Proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Histories of Black historical production and the making of Black History as a discipline
• The legacy of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) at 100
• Archives, silences, erasure, and the politics of historical recovery
• Black historians and intellectual traditions
• Black history in the academy versus public history and community knowledge
• Black history, nation‑building, and state formation in the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America
• Education policy, curriculum struggles, and the institutionalization of Black history
• Museums, monuments, memorials, and the politics of memory
• Transnational and comparative approaches to African diasporic history
• Pan‑Africanism, internationalism, and global Black solidarities
• Migration, exile, displacement, and diasporic identity formation
• Civil Rights, Black Power, abolitionist, and contemporary movements (including Black Lives Matter)
• Black labor movements, radical traditions, and political economy
• Student activism, youth movements, and campus organizing
• Gender, sexuality, and Black feminist and womanist historiography
• Literature as archive: novels, poetry, drama, and literary criticism as historical sources
• Black speculative fiction, historical imagination, and alternative futures
• Autobiography, biography, and life writing as Black historical method
• Oral traditions, folklore, trickster narratives, and indigenous epistemologies
• Religion, spirituality, cosmology, and sacred resistance in Black history
• Colonialism, decolonization, and postcolonial state formation
• Development, underdevelopment, and Black critiques of global capitalism
• Teaching Black history in K‑12 schools, colleges, and community spaces
• Digital humanities, digital archives, and Black historical storytelling
• The future of Black history as an interdisciplinary field
• Black contributions to scientific thought, medicine, engineering, and technology across the diaspora
• Black scientists, inventors, and innovators as historical actors
• The history of public health, pandemics, and Black communities
• Climate change, environmental justice, and Black ecological histories
• Data, surveillance, and racialized technologies
• Science fiction, Afrofuturism, and Black speculative histories
• Black Music and Theater: Past and Present

Submission Guidelines

Individual Papers: Submit a 250–300 word abstract and a brief (1–2 page) CV

Panel Proposals: Submit a 500–750-word panel description, including a unifying theme, along with abstracts and CVs for each participant

Roundtables/Workshops: Proposals are welcome for non-traditional formats

Submission and Contact

Please submit proposals and direct inquiries to: https://forms.gle/L3kDZdvBitG7mYBj8

Please send all your questions to: benjaminquarlesconference@gmail.com

This conference aims not only to commemorate a century of Black historical inquiry but also to provoke new questions about its future directions, methodologies, and political stakes. We especially encourage interdisciplinary, critical, and innovative approaches that push the boundaries of how Black history is imagined and practiced.