CFP: The Legacies of Exchange by 19th-Century Black Women at the SSAWW 2021 Conference

This panel highlights forms of representation and exchange by black women that look beyond narratives of enslavement. We welcome papers that explore how nineteenth-century black women built networks of kinship and support through forms of correspondence (letters, periodicals, allusions) and materials that illustrate artistic intimacies (albums, scrapbooks, autograph books, marginalia, ephemera). Building on the work of scholars like Nazera Sadiq Wright and Jasmine Nichole Cobb, we ask: what ecologies and networks are illuminated when we look at these items? We are especially interested in discussions of archival resources, recovery work, sentimentality, citizenship, and writing as care-taking.

By February 15th, please send your abstract (250-300 words), institutional affiliation, contact information, and a brief bio (no more than 50-60 words) to Victoria Baugh at vlb57@cornell.edu or Charline Jao (cj422@cornell.edu).