Black Bodies, Social Justice, and the Archive

In association with the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Lecture featuring civil rights lawyer and social justice advocate Bryan Stevenson, the Institute for the Humanities and the University of Michigan School of Information will host an open seminar on the relationships between the new conceptions of the archive and the advancement of social justice causes in the United States.

Amidst the rejection of facts and historical perspective, progress in addressing structural and overt racism, police brutality, and inequitable incarceration requires a critical interrogation of what an archive is, where it lives or dies, and how it should persist and be used. The day-long seminar will bring together a group of junior scholars from around the country whose work is deeply informed by the witnessing power of the archive – from body cam data to hidden historical records – to illuminate and address contemporary social justice challenges.

The event is free and open to the public.

Photo: A jar of soil from the site of each lynching in Alabama, at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Courtesy of Brian Palmer/brianpalmer.photos.