The Division of Social Sciences is hosting a major conference at UCSB, “Archives Unbound: 50 Years of Hope, Resistance and Rebellion.” This three day, in-person conference seeks to honor, engage, and extend the work of Cedric and Elizabeth Robinson and to inaugurate the gift of the Cedric J. Robinson and Elizabeth P. Robinson Archive to UCSB.
The conference will be held on Thursday, May 30 - Sunday, June 2, 2024, on the UCSB campus, and will feature distinguished speakers such as Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Shana Redmond, Erica Edwards, HTL Quan, Carol Boyce Davis, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Arun Kundnani, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Moon-Ho Jung, Sherene Seikaly, Chris McAuley, Kylie Gaines, Zach Levenson, Onur Ulas Ince, Steven Osuna, Sophie Toupin, Arun Kundnani, Jordan Camp, Christina Heatherton, Yousuf Al-Bulushi, Matt Harris, Joshua Myers, Damien Sojoyner, Gaye Theresa Johnson, Avery Gordon, Francoise Cromer, Marisela Marquez, and Gerard Pigeon. For a description of the conference along with the list of panels and speakers, please see here.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Elizabeth Robinson
Family portrait of Cedric Robinson, Elizabeth Robinson and their daughter Najda Ife Robinson-Mayer (left to right), mid-1980s.
The late Cedric J. Robinson was professor and former chair of both the departments of Black Studies and of Political Science at UCSB, the long-time director of the Center for Black Studies Research, and a pre-eminent scholar of Black radicalism, African diaspora, internationalism, political theory, racial capitalism, and media and politics. His writings have wide-ranging influence in academia, and in many public arenas. He also mentored and advised the dissertations of dozens of students who have gone on to be influential scholars and practitioners in various disciplines. His books include, most notably, Terms of Order: Political Science and the Myth of Leadership (1980); Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (1983); Black Movements in America (1997); An Anthropology of Marxism (2001); and Forgeries of Memory & Meaning: Blacks & the Regimes of Race in American Theater & Film Before World War II (2007).
Elizabeth Peters Robinson has been a community media activist, advocate and producer at the local, national and international levels for more than 40 years. Her programs include “No Alibis” and “Third World News Review” on KCSB Radio, where she worked as the Associated Students Associate Director for Media and KCSB Advisor. She has worked with the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and participated and covered international meetings like the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the World Social Fora, the World Summit on the Information Society, and the Americas Social Forum. As a journalist, feminist of color in media, and Arab American, she is particularly committed to providing corrective information about the Middle East for listeners and viewers. Her writings can be found in Race & Class, Futures of Black Radicalism, and elsewhere.
To register, please fill in our registration form here.
National co-sponsors: Marguerite Casey Foundation and the New York University’s Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.
UCSB co-sponsors: Area Global Initiative, Center for Black Studies Research, Center for Feminist Futures, Center for Middle East Studies; Departments of Asian American Studies, Black Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, Classics, Communication, English, Feminist Studies, Global Studies, History, Political Science, and Sociology; Global Environmental Justice Project, Global Latinidades Center, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, and the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life.
Media Sponsor: KCSB
