The Sawyer Seminar Series, convened by Department of African and African American Studies and the Center for the Humanities, examines how Black studies can help sustaivn academic freedom and reimagine democratic higher education. The seminar unfolds through a yearlong series of themed conversations that bring together faculty, students, community partners and national leaders. Collectively, participants will examine how Black studies — an interdisciplinary field that draws from disciplines such as anthropology, education, history, literature, political science, psychology and sociology to understand structures of power, inequality and resistance — is a vital framework for understanding the past, navigating the present and shaping the future of higher education.
This opening seminar will set the tone for the year by positioning academic freedom as a critical, evolving and contested concept — one that must be understood historically, continually reimagined in response to changing realities and defended structurally. Central to our discussion will be Black studies scholars whose work highlights how academic freedom is shaped by power, identity and institutional politics.
Angela Davis is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.