In 2025, the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) will celebrate its 50th Anniversary as an organization, along with the life and legacy of Dr. Terry Kershaw. Under the leadership of Dr. Bertha Maxwell Roddey, a group of scholars convened in March of 1975 to review and discuss the goals of Black Studies programs across the nation, for the purpose of promoting academic excellence and social responsibility in the discipline of Africana/Black Studies through the production and dissemination of knowledge, professional development, training, and advocacy for social change and social justice. This cohort later formed what we now know as the National Council for Black Studies.

This year’s theme “Sankofa: Celebrating Solidarity, Power, and Pan-Africanism in the 21^st Century,” allows us to reflect upon the foundation of the organization while honoring the institutional legacy created for future generations of Black scholars. As the NCBS celebrates new pathways, it must look back and recognize scholarship and activism from the past 50 years that laid the foundation of the discipline today. As we look forward to the next 50 years, it is imperative that we continue our fight to protect the house. This conference acknowledges our position and power as an organization to defend and advocate for Black Studies as the discipline faces antagonism and possible dissolution in the current political and social climate. We also emphasize the global solidarity of Black people against genocide, exploitation, neocolonialism, and other oppressive systems. Thus, with this year’s conference occurring in such a critical socio-political hour, we call on not only the wisdom of our founders and current scholars, but on the budding wisdom of our future scholars and practitioners, as well.

With this theme as an overarching framework, NCBS is inviting you to answer the call for papers by Monday, December 20, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Submissions will not be accepted after this date. Proposals vetted on a continuous, rolling basis. Submit early for timely consideration.

Proposals are encouraged to relate to this year’s theme; however, proposals of significant interest to the discipline of Africana/Black Studies will be considered.  Possible paper topics for thought provoking panel discussion and intellectually stimulating research proposals can cover a vast array of topics within the discipline of Black Studies.

The conference, in its commitment to inclusion of a diversity of demographic, scholarly and social vantage points and points of view, welcomes the rich varieties of theories and schools of thought in Africana Studies, i.e., womanism, Afrocentricity, feminism, Kawaida philosophy, Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism, African Centered Thought and Pedagogy, sexuality theories, socialist initiatives, cultural theories, aesthetic theories, etc. We urge you to join us.

Proposals must include:

• A title and abstract for the panel session.
• Titles and names of presenters in the session. Each presenter should be identified by their institutional affiliation or other identifying information.
• Title and name of chair/facilitator, if you are providing your own.
• Sessions by professional members should be indicated as such and those by students (whether graduate or undergraduate) should likewise be indicated as such.
• Incomplete proposals will not be considered.

Proposals with all presenters holding current NCBS membership status will be given first consideration. Renew or join now.

The conference committee will select a chair/facilitator for each accepted panel unless a chair/facilitator is named and identified as such by the organizer of the submitted panel.

ALL proposals must be submitted via All Academic.

As you prepare to submit your abstracts:

• Please do not use all caps or all lowercase letters when entering names, institutions, as well as titles of presentations and papers
• Your NCBS website username and password should also be your All Academic login credentials, if you have an existing NCBS account. If you have problems logging in, please email info@ncbsonline.org.  Please do not create a new account in All Academic if you know you’ve submitted an abstract in the past.  We are striving to clean up our database by eliminating duplicate accounts.
• If you have changed institutions or positions, please make sure it is updated in All Academic. It is your responsibility to update your NCBS website and All Academic information.