CFPs: Panel on Black Resistance and the Deceased for OAH 2020

I am organizing a panel on African American resistance and the deceased that will be submitted as a proposal for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians (held in Washington, DC from April 2-4).  Tentatively titled “Beyond the Grave: African American Resistance and the Deceased,” the panel explores the various ways African Americans have conceptualized, utilized, and produced spaces to reflect on the deceased in their efforts for full equality.  The current panel is comprised of two participants whose research explore 1) the intersection of black enslaved resistance and graveyards in the antebellum era and 2) black women’s use of eulogies for social reform and community organizing in the late nineteenth and early tentieth centuries.  We welcome 1-2 more abstracts (not more than 200 words) from graduate students working with historical methods but in all disciplines or interdisciplinary backgrounds to join the panel.  Possible topics include but are not limited to: ideas in the African diaspora about death or the deceased; the rituals and customs central to the black fight for racial and/or gender equality; the use of spaces by African Americans or others conventionally reserved for the deceased (e.g., funeral homes, cemetaries, etc) to negotiate or contest discrimination or to define or build community; and the role of public memory in advancing the struggle for racial/gender equality; the role of religion, art, speech, music, or other expresssions in discussions about the deceased and resistance in the African diaspora. Please contact Joseph Williams atjtw89@history.rutgers.edu or josephthomaswilliams@yahoo.com if you would like to submit an abstract or have questions about the panel.  Please be sure to submit all inquiries by January 14, 2019.