CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State University’s School of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies announced the lineup for a new live webcast speaker series that seeks to center Black voices in academia.

The next webcast in the donor-sponsored Cabildos Speaker Series is scheduled for Oct. 6 and will feature Youssef Carter, an assistant professor and Kenan Rifai Fellow in Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 

The series aims to show the links between scholarship and activism, contextualize U.S. current events within the broader African Diaspora and support untenured historians and writers. The name of the series refers to the African Diasporic institution of the cabildo. These groups provided health care, festive funerals and a wide range of ethnic and community-building links in the context of colonialism and slavery, from the medieval era to the present day. Cabildos helped politicize African-descent individuals in locations such as Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and Cuba, fostering insurgency in the 19th century and encouraging communal organization into the 20th century.

Hosted by the OSU history program within the College of Liberal Arts, the Cabildos Speaker Series is free and open to the public. For more information, visit events.oregonstate.edu.

Series schedule:

  • 4 p.m. Oct. 6, 2020
    Youssef Carter, assistant professor & Kenan Rifai Fellow in Islamic Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
    Theological Tensions and Disparate Freedom Dreams in a Black Religious Soundscape
    Register for Zoom here.
  • 4 p.m. Oct. 21, 2020
    Austin McCoy, assistant professor of history, Auburn University
    Detroit Under STRESS: Protesting Police Violence in the 1970s and the Present
    Register for Zoom here.
  • 4 p.m. Nov. 10, 2020
    Miguel Valerio, assistant professor of Spanish, Washington University, St. Louis
    BLM before BLM: Black Resistance in Colonial Latin America
    Register for Zoom here.
  • Feb. 26, 2021 time TBA
    Danielle Terrazas Williams, assistant professor of history, Oberlin College
    Tentative Topic: Gender and Enslavement in Spanish America
  • March 12, 2021 time TBA
    Michael Dickinson, assistant professor of history, Virginia Commonwealth University
    Tentative Topic: Comparative History in Anglo-Caribbean Slave Societies
  • Additional speakers, dates/times to be announced:
    • Carmen Thompson, Portland Community College
    • Adom Getachew, University of Chicago
    • Quin'Nita Cobbins-Modica, Gonzaga University
    • Nick Jones, Bucknell University

College of Liberal Arts

About the OSU College of Liberal Arts: The College of Liberal Arts encompasses seven distinct schools, as well as several interdisciplinary initiatives, that focus on humanities, social sciences, and fine and performing arts. Curriculum developed by the college’s nationally and internationally-renowned faculty prepares students to approach the complex problems of the world ethically and thoughtfully, contributing to a student's academic foundation and helping to build real-world skills for a 21st century career and a purposeful life.

Story By: 

Erin Sneller, 541-737-5592, [email protected]

Source: 

Nicole von Germeten, [email protected]

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