“Walls Turned Sideways: Bridges in Black Study”
The 2026 St. Clair Drake Conference will be held on May 7th, 2026 at the David Brower Center in Downtown Berkeley. Please see our event page for more details. The conference will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the VèVè A. Clark Institute for Engaged Scholars of African American Studies.
"Walls turned sideways are bridges."
–Angela Y Davis, An Autobiography
The Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley invites submissions for the 2026 St. Clair Drake Conference. Named in honor of the pioneering anthropologist and scholar of the African Diaspora, this conference creates a supportive space for graduate students whose research engages with Black Studies methodologies, frameworks, and theories across disciplines. Undoubtedly, Black studies has remained on contested grounds since its inception. Withstanding efforts to dismantle and police the study of Blackness, those within the field have held seriously the generative potential of turning these walls into “bridges” — Ways of being that extend outward toward relation and intellectual crossings, resisting the isolation demanded by a surd of anti-Black violences and systems.
Black Study is a uniquely positioned bridge for critical work – both within and beyond the university. An ethos and praxis reflected within the VèVè A. Clark Institute for Engaged Scholars of African American Studies and In defense of Black Studies Small Grants programs.
- The VèVè A. Clark Institute for Engaged Scholars of African American Studies, a mentorship program for scholars of African American Studies celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. Named for Dr. VeVe Amassa Clark, this program provides the space where thought is bridged with scholarly action. Clark, who coined the term Diaspora Studies, created the discipline out of the breadth of her scholarly research and experiences across the Diaspora.
- Launched in the Fall of 2025, The In Defense of Black Studies Small Grants Program supports projects from undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff at UC Berkeley conducting projects that affirm and model the significance of Black study in light of the recently reinvigorated attacks against it.
We invite scholars from all disciplines and the programs above whose work explores, and is not limited to, the following questions (through various methodological and disciplinary approaches).
- Questions about Modes of Seeing: How might Black Study instruct a critical re-framing and re-scoping of (in)visible regimes? How does scholarship that engages Blackness redefine the borders and communities occupying such terrain; where terms like sight, surveillance, gaze, and perspective gain deeper meaning (politically, socially, affectively)?
- Questions about Technologies of Containment: In what ways might Black Study present a bridge for theorizing displacement, movement, ownership, institution, and the archive? How might Diasporic thinking inform our reading of the technologies which brought about modern practices of confinement?
- Questions about Manual and Craft: How might we think of Black Study as broadly surfacing traditions of collectivity through the cultivation of craft, oral history, and folklore? What forms of interdisciplinary bridges emerge from such practices?
- Questions about Relation and Care: To whom or what is Black Study responsible? How does Black Study position an ethics of care and interrelation within and beyond the research it inspires?
Format:
The conference will feature:
- Graduate student paper presentations
- Works-in-progress
- Research presentations from the VéVé Clark Institute Scholars
Proposals should include:
- Abstract (350 words maximum)
- Brief biography highlighting your disciplinary background and engagement with Black Studies (150 words maximum)
- Brief statement about how your work has
- Technical requirements for presentation
- Contact information and institutional affiliation
Panel proposals should include abstracts and biographies for all participants, along with a 250-word panel description.
Submission Process: Please submit proposals via our Google Form no later than Monday, April 20th, 2026, at 5pm.
Important Dates:
- Submission Deadline: Monday, April 20th, 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
- Conference Date: Thursday, May 7th 2026
For any questions or concerns please email stclairdrake2026@proton.me.