The Common Wind

The Common Wind

A Symposium on the Influence of Julius S. Scott’s Writing and Teaching

Join us on Saturday, February 29, for a gathering in celebration of the influence and legacy of Julius S. Scott (Ph.D.’86 History) on the field of Atlantic history. As a doctoral student in the History Department at Duke University in the 1980s, Scott wrote a dissertation called “The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of Revolution,” which reshaped the field through its study of the circulation of ideas and information in the Greater Caribbean and beyond during the era of the Haitian Revolution. As a faculty member in the department from 1988 to 1994, he worked with a remarkable cohort of graduate students who have in turn expanded and transformed the field of Atlantic history.

A group of those students, along with Scott, will return to Duke on February 29 to speak about their collective work, their influences on one another, and the future of the field. The event will take place at the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center on West Campus from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Lunch will be served at noon. All are welcome. Please RSVP.

Participants

Julius Scott, Ph.D.’86
Author, The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of Revolution; Lecturer IV History, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

Herman Bennett, Ph.D.’93
Professor of History, City University of New York

Vincent Brown, Ph.D.’02
Charles Warren Professor of American History; Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Alexander Byrd, Ph.D.’01
Associate Professor of History, Rice University

Kathryn Dungy, Ph.D.’00
Associate Professor of Caribbean and Latin American History, Saint Michael’s College

Jennifer Morgan, Ph.D.’95
Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis & History; Chair of the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, New York University

Celia Naylor, Ph.D.’01
Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, Barnard College, Columbia University

Claudio Saunt, Ph.D.’96
Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, Distinguished Research Professor, University of Georgia

Related Events

Saturday, February 29, 11:00 a.m.: The Graduate School and the Forum for Scholars and Publics are holding a conversation for Scott and current graduate students, with coffee and snacks. Attendees must register separately for that session.

Sunday, March 1, 1:30 p.m.: The Regulator Bookshop in Durham (720 9th Street) is hosting a book-release and book-signing event for Scott and Vincent Brown, one of the history Ph.D. alumni participating in the symposium. The event will include a reading and discussion about their new books, Scott’s The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution and Brown’s Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War.

Free and open to the public. The symposium is organized by The Graduate School and the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University, with support from the Department of African and African-American Studies, the Cultural Anthropology Department, the Duke Council on Race and Ethnicity, and the History Department.