RaceB4Race's Public Circulation of Ideas

RaceB4Race's Public Circulation of Ideas RaceB4Race's Public Circulation of Ideas RaceB4Race (RB4R) is an ongoing conference series and professional network community by and for scholars of color working on issues of race and structural racism in premodern literature, history, and culture. Launched in January 2019 at Arizona State University, RB4R centers the expertise, perspectives, and sociopolitical interests of BIPOC scholars whose work expands critical race theory. While the RB4R symposia have been ground-breaking and influential, I am eager to expand the group of participants and to pivot the group to focus on the public circulation of our ideas. In a year-long seminar (mostly virtual, but with in-person meetings), a cohort of scholars from fields already well established in RaceB4Race (e.g., literary studies, history, classics) will meet with scholars and practitioners from areas not often connected with the study of race in the premodern period and in which BIPOC scholars may also be vastly underrepresented (e.g., religion, archeology, art history, and creative arts). This cohort will come together for a series of seminars featuring discussion, design, and workshopping that culminates in collaborative public-facing projects whose aim is to get our premodern critical race studies research into public circulation. Over the course of 10 sessions, a facilitator will guide a group of 10 senior scholars through the various ways to share our premodern critical race studies with the public. Various experts in public-facing scholarship will be invited to meet with the group including, literary agents, magazine editors, publicists, etc. At the end of the year-long seminar, we will create concrete public-facing projects at the individual and group levels.