African American Intellectual History Society

We are inviting early-career scholars and ABD graduate students to participate in a two-day workshop at Brown University in October 2026 focused on the Global Black Press.

The workshop will bring together emerging scholars to share and discuss draft essays for a collaborative scholarly project commemorating the bicentennial of the Black Press (1827–2027).

Organized in partnership with the African American Intellectual History Society, its digital platform Black Perspectives and the journal, Global Black Thought, the initiative examines the enduring and evolving role of Black journalism in shaping Black intellectual, cultural, and political life across the African diaspora.

https://www.aaihs.org/black-journalism-in-global-perspective-intellectual-exchange-across-the-diaspora/

📚Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross’s latest book concludes with her response. Follow the link below to read more.
“Vengeance feminism, at its core, is a counterpunch—a way for Black women to lash back and take revenge to escape total victimization.”

https://www.aaihs.org/authors-response-the-power-of-black-womens-fury/

📚✨Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross' new book continues with an essay by poet DaMaris Hill. Read "Framing Black Women’s Lives in Philadelphia" by following the link below.

"I continue to admire Gross for her careful and multimodal interdisciplinary approach to studying the intersections of race, gender, and class in Black women’s history that winds into our contemporary lives."

https://www.aaihs.org/framing-black-womens-lives-in-philadelphia/

✨📚Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross's latest book continues with an essay by Jenn M. Jackson on "Fury and Disrepute: Black Women’s Feminism in Lawless Times." Follow the link below.

"In this groundbreaking text, Gross offers a reclamation of Black women’s anger, one that contextualizes justified rage and rescues the fullness of Black womanhood from stereotype and caricature. Situated in late nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Gross explores the ways in which Black women’s violent actions 'point toward a pattern and ideology not simply of self-defense but also revenge.'"

https://www.aaihs.org/fury-and-disrepute-black-womens-feminism-in-lawless-times/

✨📚Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross' book continues today with an essay on "Black Women’s Criminalization, Sexual Exploitation, and Dehumanization" by Tracey Johnson. Please see the link below.

"Vengeance Feminism uses robust sources—including court and prison records, newspaper articles, and census data—to tell a story of how Black women constructed an intellectual and political framework to strike back against misogynoir. Gross challenges us to take seriously Black women’s rage as a “distinct feminist logic” that helped them to gain some semblance of justice."

https://www.aaihs.org/black-womens-criminalization-sexual-exploitation-and-dehumanization/

✨📚Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross' new book continues today with an essay by Sophia Evangeline Gumbs on "Honor, Fury, and Reproductive Retribution in Philadelphia." Follow the link below to read more.

"In this socially, legally, and politically volatile contemporary moment, Gross’s theorization of reproductive retribution creates an opportunity for Black feminist scholars and practitioners to more deeply consider the relationship between extralegal instances of reproductive self-determination and reproductive justice. If there is indeed room for violence and vengeance in Black feminism, as Gross has suggested, what might this mean for contemporary understandings of reproductive justice?"

https://www.aaihs.org/honor-fury-and-reproductive-retribution-in-philadelphia/

✨📚Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross’ new book continues with Cheryl Hicks’ essay, “Black Women Fighting Back: Philadelphia Style.” Follow the link below.

"Vengeance feminism—the theory—stems from Gross’s longtime study and reconsideration of Black women entangled in Philadelphia’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century legal system. She connects Black women’s anger to the perennial lawlessness that shaped their everyday life."

https://www.aaihs.org/black-women-fighting-back-philadelphia-style/

📚 Our roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross' new book begins today! Follow the link below to read Antoinette Burton's essay, "Weapons of the Furious: Vengeance Feminism as 'Loving Correction.'"

"To be sure, violence has always been a subject of feminist history. Yet it is rare to receive such a sustained, unflinching investigation into how women, let alone Black women, have appropriated violence at multiple scales to protect and avenge themselves against the dangerous forms of disrespect they encountered in the home, on the street, or in the courtroom."

https://www.aaihs.org/weapons-of-the-furious-vengeance-feminism-as-loving-correction/

✨ This special issue of Global Black Thought invites submissions that explore the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. with a particular focus on his many influences on Black intellectual thought in the United States and globally. Follow the link below for more details.

https://www.aaihs.org/cfp-reverend-jesse-jackson-sr-and-the-black-intellectual-tradition/

✨The latest issue of Global Black Thought (Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2026), features an essay by Lacey Hunter & Hettie V. Williams entitled "There were no 'Idiot Savants' in the Group": Mamie Phipps Clark and the Brown v. Board Decision.

This essay examines how Mamie Phipps Clark designed the "doll test" experiment and how she inspired her husband Kenneth's study of children. Mamie Phipps Clark's master's research at Howard University and later as a doctoral student at Columbia University laid the foundation for the couple's social psychology experiment that would factor into the Supreme Court's decision to desegregate schools. This article highlights the historical contributions of Mamie Phipps Clark as a thinker and scholar in her own right. Follow the link below to learn more.

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/984041