Universities and Slavery: Bound by History
In March 2016, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, in an opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson, urged the university to more fully acknowledge and understand its links to slavery, stating, “The past never dies or disappears. It continues to shape us in ways we should not try to erase or ignore.”
On March 3, 2017, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University will host a daylong conference to explore the relationship between slavery and universities, across the country and around the world.
The faculty conference organizers are Harvard professors
- Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History
- Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
- Daniel Carpenter, director of the social sciences program at the Radcliffe Institute and Allie S. Freed Professor of Government
The conference builds on the Harvard and Slavery initiative, founded in 2007, in which students and faculty—led by Beckert—began a detailed examination of Harvard’s range of connections to slavery.
#unislavery
Keynote
WELCOME
Lizabeth Cohen, Dean, Radcliffe Institute, and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University
OPENING REMARKS
Drew Gilpin Faust, President and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University
KEYNOTE
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Journalist; National Correspondent, the Atlantic: Author, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) and The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (Spiegel & Grau, 2008)
Conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Drew Gilpin Faust
Slavery and Universities Nationally
James T. Campbell, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History, Stanford University
Adam Rothman, Professor of History, Georgetown University
Craig Steven Wilder, Barton L. Weller Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moderator: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Poetry Reading
Natasha Trethewey RI '01, Former United States Poet Laureate; Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emory University
Introduced by: Vincent Brown RI '06, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Slavery and Harvard
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University
Alexandra Rahman ’12, Student Contributor, Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History
Daniel R. Coquillette, J. Donald Monan, S.J. University Professor, Boston College Law School
Julian Bonder, Principal, Wodiczko + Bonder and Julian Bonder + Associates; Professor of Architecture, Roger Williams University
Moderator: Annette Gordon-Reed RI '16, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Harvard Law School, and Professor of History, Harvard University
Slavery and Universities Globally
Max Price, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town
Christiane Taubira, Former Minister of Justice (France)
Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, University of the West Indies
Moderator: Alejandro de la Fuente, Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics; Professor of African and African American Studies and of History; Director, Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Harvard University
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Daniel Carpenter, Faculty Director of the Social Sciences Program, Radcliffe Institute; Allie S. Freed Professor of Government, Harvard University
