Scholar-to-Scholar Talk: “Family as a Knowledge Methodology: Writing Intimate Histories” | National Humanities Center

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Scholar-to-Scholar Talk: “Family as a Knowledge Methodology: Writing Intimate Histories”

February 10, 2023

On February 9, 2023, historian Blair L. M. Kelley and political scientist Tiffany Willoughby-Herard opened a conversation at the National Humanities Center about “Family as a Knowledge Methodology: Writing Intimate Histories.” Africana religious studies scholar LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant moderated the discussion.

In this Scholar-to-Scholar conversation, these distinguished scholars of African American life discuss how our families teach us about being free and being unfree. They ask, how do our family stories help us think about scholarly knowledge-making? What are the larger stakes of writing about Black families?

Scholar-to-Scholar events are informal exchanges between interesting people, rather than formal talks behind a lectern. This discussion was held in the National Humanities Center’s Teacher’s Commons before an audience of Fellows, staff, and educators participating in the Teaching African American Studies Institute.

About the Participants

Blair L. M. Kelley (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) is director of the Center for the Study of the American South, codirector of the Southern Futures Initiative, and Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant is director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and professor of African, African-American and diaspora studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (NHC Fellow, 2022–23) is Professor Extraordinarius in the Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair at the University of South Africa and associate professor of African American studies at the University of California, Irvine.