Overview: Across the past decade, literary and cultural studies has witnessed a temporal turn. Amid the many shifting paradigms that have marked the field in recent decades, time studies has had a remarkable degree of influence, as evidenced by the diverse movements that have taken up this paradigm: queer theory, performance studies, and nineteenth-century American literature, to name just a few. African American and Black Diaspora Studies intersects with all of these areas, but also constitutes a crucial area of time studies in its own right. Indeed, black artists and activists have always and necessarily been attuned to the high political, legal, and cultural stakes of time. This roundtable explores the history of “black time” and the recent scholarship that has brought that history to light, so as to suggest directions for future work.

In particular, the panel asks: What are the roots of the temporal turn in black studies? How does it connect, or disconnect, with time studies in other fields, including American studies and queer theory? What are the connections between literary or cultural approaches to time and those in adjacent, or even seemingly distant, fields like political theory, legal studies, philosophy, anthropology, or physics? How might African American artists, writers, and activists treat time differently from those working in and from the Black Diaspora? What are the pedagogical possibilities and challenges we confront in bringing this work to our classrooms and campuses? And what are the political stakes of this temporal turn in black studies in our present political climate? How does black time matter?

Speakers:

Soyica Diggs Colbert

Daylanne English

Gregory Laski

Imani Perry

Anthony Reed

Michelle Wright