The Center for Black Digital Research is committed to offering students ways they can be academically engaged with the Center. These events are open to Penn State students, staff, and faculty and people from other institutions.
Bi-Centennial Celebrations
Frances E. W. Harper at 200: Commemorating Her Life and Legacy
The year 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of Frances Ellen Watkins’s birth. The Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk is hosting a slate of exciting scholarly and arts programming and community events to commemorate Watkins’s life and legacy.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary at 200: Commemorating Her Life and Legacy
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s birthday (October 9, 1823–June 5, 1893) and we are pleased to share events and resources that commemorate her life and legacy.
Weekly Programming and Events
Check back in fall 2024.
Community and Scholarly Events
Check back in fall 2024.
Past Events and Programming
Miss an event? Catch up at our YouTube Channel
Weekly Programming
Spring 2022
Participants will examine the African American public address tradition by focusing on the oratory of the Colored Convention Movement. The goal of the reading group is to introduce participants to the Conventions and to the speeches and the rhetorical artistry and dynamism that made up Black nineteenth-century America. Participants will do this not only by studying the orators and oratory of the conventions, but participants will also examine the conventions themselves to unpack how delegates constructed and refuted arguments, how they debated with each other, and how they went about establishing the Black rhetorical tradition.
*This reading group will focus on addresses from the National Conventions.
Facilitator: Andre E. Johnson, Ph.D.
When: Mondays • 6 weekly sessions
The DigBlk Reading Group series invites African Americanists to engage in critical dialogue about their work in relation to the Black digital humanities. The reading group will equip scholars with a conceptual toolkit to fortify their scholarly, pedagogical, and social justice commitments.
For the Critical Foundations series, we draw selected readings that center on Black experience and probe the ethical, empirical, and epistemological considerations of working at the crossroads of digital studies and African American history and culture.
Facilatator: Dr. Kevin Winstead
When: Mondays • 3 monthly sessiosn
Our Virtual Write-on-Sites series provides a dedicated writing space for BIPOC graduate students and postdocs to come together in community and advance their writing. The two-hour sessions are dedicated to quiet individual writing time to advance dissertation, article, or book writing projects.
When: Monday through Friday, 7:00-9:00 a.m. EST
Fall 2021
The DigBlk Reading Group series invites African Americanists to engage in critical dialogue about their work in relation to the Black digital humanities. The reading group will equip scholars with a conceptual toolkit to fortify their scholarly, pedagogical, and social justice commitments.
For the Critical Foundations series, we draw selected readings that center on Black experience and probe the ethical, empirical, and epistemological considerations of working at the crossroads of digital studies and African American history and culture.
Facilitator: Dr. Kevin Winstead
When: Wednesday • 6 bi-weekly sessions
Our Virtual Write-on-Sites series provides a dedicated writing space for BIPOC graduate students and postdocs to come together in community and advance their writing. The two-hour sessions are dedicated to quiet individual writing time to advance dissertation, article, or book writing projects.
When: Monday through Friday, 7:00-9:00 a.m. EST
A monthly reading group for CBDR team members.
Spring 2021
Our Virtual Write-on-Sites series provides a dedicated writing space for BIPOC graduate students and postdocs to come together in community and advance their writing. The two-hour sessions are dedicated to quiet individual writing time to advance dissertation, article, or book writing projects.
When: Monday through Friday, 7:00-9:00 a.m. EST
Meditation in Motion is to use holistic and mindfulness methods to provide a PEACEful dance experience that will nurture persons of all ages.
When: Thursdays, 7:30-8:15pm
Fall 2020
Our Virtual Write-on-Sites series provides a dedicated writing space for BIPOC graduate students and postdocs to come together in community and advance their writing. The two-hour sessions are dedicated to quiet individual writing time to advance dissertation, article, or book writing projects.
When: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 7-9am • Fridays, 7:30-9:30am
Workshop to help up your hips, knees, shoulders, and back while strengthening your core.
When: Tuesdays, 7:15-7:50am