The 2024 Inaugural James Newton Symposium: The Future of Africana Studies is a partnership between the Department of Africana Studies and the Wilmington Public Library exploring the robust field of Africana studies. 

The symposium includes the sessions Generations and Genealogies: Black Feminist Bonds and Binds, and When and Where is the Africana Future. The keynote speaker Charlene A. Carruthers is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer and Black Studies Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University. 

About James E. Newton

James E. Newton, one of the founding directors of the program in Black Studies (now the Department of Africana Studies), was an artist, scholar and advocate for Black study and student life at the University of Delaware. As a driver of the fields of African American and African diaspora studies at UD, his lasting impact brings us together in community to critically reflect on the future of Black life and study. 

The James E. Newton Symposium builds on Newton’s legacy of activism and people-centered scholarship to explore new directions, questions and methodologies that define the field of Africana Studies in our evolving historical, social, cultural, political and environmental realities.

Registration is required by 8:00am Friday October 4th to be included in lunch, as well as for confirmation and email reminders.