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Center forBlack Digital Research, #DigBlk

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#Harper200 Commemoration

The Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk is hosting #Harper200, a slate of exciting scholarly and arts programming and community events to commemorate Harper’s life and legacy.
Beige graphic with gold trim, blue and black text, block cut image of Frances E. W. Harper

Douglass Day

Douglass Day is an annual event that celebrates the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass every February with a transcribe-a-thon to share and preserve Black records.

Colored Conventions Project

The Colored Conventions Project (CCP) brings seven decades of nineteenth-century Black organizing to digital life, gathering the movement’s scattered records in one place, and making them freely accessible for the very first time.

Welcome to the Center for Black Digital Research!

The Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk is a public-facing research center committed to bringing the histories of early Black organizing to digital life through innovative scholarship and collaborative partnerships. The Center is home to the award-winning Colored Conventions Project, Douglass Day, and the Black Women’s Organizing Archive. Learn more at our Research page or by exploring the exhibits, historical records, and videos available through our project sites!

EVENTS & ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Frances E. W. Harper at 200: Commemorating Her Life and Legacy

The year 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of Frances Ellen Watkins’s birth. #DigBlk is hosting a slate of exciting scholarly and arts programming and community events to commemorate Watkins’s life and legacy.

Get PhinisheD! Write on Sites

Starting August 25, 2025!

A dedicated virtual writing space where graduate students, postdocs, and faculty come together in community to advance our writing. Come as you are, with your hair bonnet on, and get it PHinisheD! Everyone is welcome. Sign up at bit.ly/write-on-site-25-26.

NEWS

CBDR Announces New Co-Director, 
Dr. Chris Dancy

We are excited to share that Dr. Chris Dancy, Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, and African American Studies, is joining the #DigBlk leadership team as its new co-director. Dr. Dancy joins Dr. P. Gabrielle Foreman as Dr. Shirley Moody Turner completes her term as the inaugural co-director.

Meet the #DigBlk Team

We are faculty, graduate and undergraduates, postdoc, librarians, archivists, and community partners working together across ranks, disciplines, and institutions to bring the histories of early Black organizing to digital life through innovative scholarship and collaborative partnerships.