Upcoming Events
Interrogating Strength and Mental Well-Being in Black Women Across the Diaspora: A Black Feminist Psychological Perspective
On April 27th, I’ll be giving a research talk where I share preliminary results from my dissertation! Think of it as a mini test run before I officially defend. If you’re available consider dropping by! And if you’d rather wait for the “real” dissertation defense (happening in summer) that’s totally cool too.
Urban Futures and Black Life
Join us for an exploration of the social, political, and cultural forces shaping Black life across the globe. This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together scholars whose work examines the past, present, and future of urban experiences in Africa and the African Diaspora.
9th Annual Black Maternal Health Conference
🌟 Grab your tickets now for our *virtual* Black Maternal Health conference: https://bmhc.vfairs.com/ 🌟
2026 Eric Williams Memorial Lecture
featuring Marlon James
About the 2026 Eric Williams Memorial Lecture
Founded in 1999, the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture series honors the late Dr. Eric Williams (1911-1981), scholar, statesman, and Head of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago from 1956 until his death in 1981.
As the celebrated author of five novels, Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970 and divides his time between Minnesota and New York. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice.
“Marlon James is a writer of exceptional talent and range,” says Warfield Center Director and literary scholar Dr. Jennifer Wilks. “As Eric Williams was a scholar whose deep knowledge of history informed his vision for an independent Trinidad and Tobago, so James is an artist who deftly moves between immersive historical fiction and captivating epic fantasy, delving into the nuances of the past to imagine the possibilities of the future.”
The 2026 EWML is sponsored by the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, The Eric Williams Memorial Collection Research Library, Archives & Museum at The University of the West Indies; the City of Austin, UT’s Michener Center for Writers, UT’s New Writers Project, The Caribbean Studies Initiative of The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), and the Texas Book Festival.
