May 7, 2026
David Brower Center
“Walls Turned Sideways: Bridges in Black Study”
The Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley invites you to join us 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. This year’s conference will also celebrate Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the VèVè A. Clark Institute for Engaged Scholars of African American Studies.