This two-day conference, organized by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Institute for Comparative Modernities, and Polson Institute for Global Development, brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars conducting innovative research on the topic of racial capitalism across the globe.

Anchored around Cedric Robinson’s two central claims—on the role of bonded labor in the development of capitalism and a world-consciousness rooted in African worlds—this conference is convened to spark conversation on the wider applicability of the term racial capitalism to understand current global articulations of capital and labor, and the emancipatory possibilities they may harbor.

Friday, April 21, 2023 | Africana Studies & Research Center Multipurpose room

10:45 a.m. Opening Remarks, Conference organizers

11 a.m.—1:00 p.m. Panel One | Genealogies

Moderator: Viranjini Munasinghe (Cornell University)

Panelists:

Peter James Hudson (University of California, Los Angeles)

Megan Ming Francis (University of Washington)

Jordanna Matlon (American University)

Discussants: Amiel Bize (Cornell University) and Begüm Adalet (Cornell University)

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2:00—4:00 p.m. Panel Two | Settler Colonialism and Racial Capitalism

Moderator: Begüm Adalet (Cornell University)

Robert Nichols (University of Minnesota)

Joanne Barker (San Francisco State University; The University of Chicago)

Muriam Haleh Davis (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Darren Byler (Simon Fraser University)

Discussant: Jodi Byrd (Cornell University)

4:00 p.m. Reception to follow afternoon panel | Hoyt Fuller Room

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See Day Two