Join The Driskell Center on February 6th, 2026 for the opening of its spring exhibition, America Will Be! All Driskell Center events are free and open to the public.
On view at The Driskell Center gallery from February 9 through May 8, the exhibition will open with a public reception on February 6, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Our 2026 SJA symposium theme is Freedom Dreams and Radical Joy: Youth Voices in the Pursuit of a Just Society. The symposium will be held on April 10, 2026 at The University of Maryland College Park.
Date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Time: 11:00AM - 1:00PM
Location: University of Maryland, Riggs Alumni Center, 7801 Alumni Dr, College Park, MD 20742
This year’s symposium continues to honor the life and legacy of Lt. Richard W. Collins III and will center the voices, visions, and leadership of individuals who are reimagining justice through creativity, resistance, and collective joy. This gathering calls us to center joy, mental health, and persistence as acts of resistance and renewal. Together, we will explore how radical hope and youth-led movements are shaping a more just, compassionate, and liberated future.
The BSU-UMD Social Justice Alliance annual symposium will bring together change makers, scholars, and community leaders to explore ways we can build community and collective action for the days, weeks and months ahead and champion the importance of active participation and collective resistance in today’s social justice landscape.
Join us for a dynamic conversation exploring the history and legacy of school desegregation in Prince George's County.
Featured author, Deirdre Mayer Dougherty, will set the stage, sharing insights from her book Race and Place: School Desegregation in Prince George's County, Maryland which traces the everyday experiences of community members throughout the process of school desegregation and how race, place, and truth came to matter in this process from 1945 through 1973.
Following her presentation, we welcome special guests Alvin Thornton, former four-term chair of the Prince George's County Board of Education, Kimberly A. Griffin, Dean of the College of Education at UMD, and Shawn Joseph, Interim Superintendent of PGCPS, as they reflect on the lessons of desegregation and the ongoing work toward equitable schools today.
Free RSVP includes entry into the event and a light reception.
In Heavyweight, Jordana Moore Saggese examines images of Black heavyweight boxers to map the visual terrain of racist ideology in the United States, paying particular attention to the intersecting discourses of Blackness, masculinity, and sport. Looking closely at the “shadow archive” of portrayals across fine art, vernacular imagery, and public media at the turn of the twentieth century, she demonstrates how the images of boxers reveal the racist stereotypes implicit in them, many of which continue to structure ideas of Black men today. With a focus on both anonymous fighters and notorious champions, including Jack Johnson, Saggese contends that popular images of these men provided white spectators a way to render themselves experts on Blackness and Black masculinity. These images became the blueprint for white conceptions of the Black male body—existing between fear and fantasy, simultaneously an object of desire and an instrument of violence. Reframing boxing as yet another way whiteness establishes the violent mythology of its supremacy, Saggese highlights the role of imagery in normalizing a culture of anti-Blackness.
American Studies | Art History and Archaeology | College of Arts and Humanities | David C. Driskell Center for the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora | Douglass Center | English | History
Monday, April 20, 2026 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm David C. Driskell Center
The Douglass Dialogues is a new event series that brings together scholars and public intellectuals from distinct and varied points of view for a public conversation around a timely theme. Grounded in the spirit of Frederick Douglass’s commitment to critical inquiry, moral clarity and democratic exchange, each dialogue foregrounds the productive tension that emerges when ideas are examined across differences. Rather than seeking consensus, the series values rigor, listening and the generative possibilities of disagreement, inviting participants and audiences alike to witness scholarship as a living, relational practice.
The first event in the series, What to Us Now is the Fourth of July?, references Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” in which he critiqued the American commemoration of its independence and also affirmed his astounding hope in American ideals. The conversation will also ask us to confront our own relationship and outlook on a nation celebrating 250 years. Is this celebration a sham? Does the Constitution provide an instrument of possibility?
Three scholars will offer varying perspectives on what this celebration, and the “character and conduct of this nation,” means in 2026.
They include:
Christopher Bonner, associate professor of history (UMD)
Janelle Wong, professor of American studies and government and politics (UMD)
Larry Thompson, John A. Sibley professor in corporate and business law at the University of Georgia and former deputy Attorney General of the United States under George W. Bush
Learn more and register here.
Arts for All | Language House | School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Monday, May 4, 2026 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm 0107 St. Mary’s Hall, International Film Lounge
Join us for an international movie night at the Language House! The students of the Arabic cluster will be showing "Assal Eswed" on May 4 at 6pm in 0107 St. Mary's Hall, in Arabic with English subtitles. After spending 20 years in the United States, Masry returns to Egypt with a romanticized image of his homeland. However, he quickly encounters the everyday realities that challenge his expectations. Through humorous and heartfelt moments, Assal Eswed explores themes of identity, belonging, cultural perception, and what it truly means to call a place “home.” The film offers a light yet meaningful reflection on navigating between two worlds. All are welcome!
