"Black Marxism" Symposium

Santa Barbara, Nov. 5–7, 2004

in honor of the 20th anniversary of Cedric J. Robinson's Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center will be hosting a "Symposium on Cedric J. Robinson's Radical Thought: Toward Critical Social Theories and Practice." It will be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara on November 5-7, 2004.

The Symposium will provide a forum for dialogue about the historical legacy and future development of the Black radical Tradition in the academy as well as an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the important contributions made to that tradition by Professor Robinson's long record of activism and committed scholarship. The Symposium will consist of two panels addressing past and future directions in radical scholarship. Working Groups will follow the panels and will focus on research, pedagogy and community action on topics ranging from Race and Empire to Radical Historiography and the Prison Industrial Complex. The Symposium will culminate with a lecture by Cedric J. Robinson.
We hope that this Symposium will serve as a platform for evaluating, discussing and securing traditions of radical scholarship and critical pedagogy at a time when the role and place of critical thinking within the academy is once more under pressure.

Organized by several of Robinson's colleagues and four of his UCSB alumni; it is sponsored by the UCSB IHC, UC-IHC, UCSB Chancellor's office, Dean of Social Sciences and various research centers and academic departments. It also seeks to recruit graduate students at a Sunday brunch.

We hope that you will join us for this exciting gathering, and ask that you help us distribute this announcement to your departmental colleagues and future colleagues amongst our graduate and undergraduate students.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to blackmarxism2004@yahoo.com

Cedric J. Robinson teaches in the Departments of Black Studies and Political Science. He received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his MA and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has served as Chair of the Department of Black Studies as well as of Political Science and has also served as the Director of the Center for Black Studies at UCSB. His fields of teaching and research include modern political thought, radical social theory in the African Diaspora, comparative politics, and media and politics. He is the author of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Terms of Order: Political Science and the Myth of Leadership, Black Movements in America, and An Anthropology of Marxism. He is also the author of numerous articles on US, African and Caribbean political thought, Western social theory, film and the press. His most recent work, An Anthropology of Marxism, a monograph study of the historical and discursive antecedents of Marxism. Currently he is working on a book about early Black films in the United States. Cedric Robinson is also a co-founder and a regular correspondence of Third World News Review, a weekly television and radio program and the oldest public access television show in the country.

Coordinating and Planning Committee:

Dick Hebdige, Ph.D.
Director Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB

Francoise Cromer, Ph.D., CUNY-BCC

Marisela Marquez, Ph.D., UCSB

H.L.T. Quan, Ph.D., DePaul University

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Ph.D.University of Michigan, Flint

Christopher Newfield, English, UCSB

Gerard G. Pigeon, Professor, Black Studies, UCSB

Sylvia Curtis, Librarian, UCSB