It has been my pleasure to be the lead organizer for the African American Art History: Present Coordinates symposium. In winter 2021, I wrote a grant application to the Emerging Scholars Program, an provost-level initiative to bring embodied diversity to the Boston University campus. I next developed the call for papers and programming targeted at advanced doctoral students in the fields of African American art history, architecture, and material culture. Melanee Harvey, PhD, Associate Professor of Art History, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University, gave a keynote lecture that was introduced by Dr. Patricia Hills, Professor Emerita, American & African American Art, Boston University.

The successful weekend brought renewed recognition to Boston University’s longstanding association of excellence in African American art historical scholarship.