Looking forward to this conference May 28-30 in Québec on “Voices in the Legal Archives in the French Atlantic,” at which I will present a paper entitled “Controlling Haitian History: Moreau de Saint-Méry and the Revolt against the Indies Company.”
MIT and the Task of History
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to participate in one of the most interesting and important dialogues I have been involved in as a historian. The occasion was the second of a series of forums on the “MIT and Slavery” project, an investigation of MIT’s relationship to slavery that MIT’s President Rafael Reif commissioned at the end of last academic year. The project has been spearheaded by my colleague Craig Wilder, who had the brilliant idea of creating an undergraduate research seminar (along with MIT archivist Nora Murphy) to undertake the investigation. The first forum in the series featured Craig and Nora as well as T.A. Claire Kim and a genuinely spectacular cohort of undergrads, who spoke on that day with a composure and degree of insight one would expect to see from an advanced historian (video here). The second forum, in which I was joined by Craig and MIT SHASS Dean Melissa Nobles as well as historians Tanalís Padilla and Lerna Ekmekçioğlu, was a follow-up response to questions from the MIT community about the purpose of studying this chapter of MIT’s past. The panel opened up onto a broader discussion of “the power of historical knowledge to make a better world,” from which I learned a great deal (not least by way of the lively Q&A with the audience that followed). A video recording of the event can be found here, and a news summary here. The event was organized by Emily Hiestand of the MIT SHASS Dean’s office.
Yale Early Modern Empires Workshop: The Jesuits in Haiti
MIT “Black Lives Matter” Conversation
Boston area friends,
The Black Students’ Union at MIT is hosting a conversation on April 22, from 2-4pm, entitled “What does Black Lives Matter have to do with YOU?” at the Stratton Student Center, Mezzanine Lounge (W20-307). Please attend if you can and share with interested folks.
[pdf-embedder url=”http://lawandrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BSUBLMsmaller.pdf”]
ASLH call for proposals extended to April 3
The next meeting of the American Society for Legal History will be held in Las Vegas from Oct. 26-29, 2017. The deadline for panel and paper proposals has been extended to April 3. Please consider submitting a proposal, especially if you have not yet participated in an ASLH meeting. The CFP is here. Some financial assistance is available for participants, especially graduate students, who need funding support in order to attend.
Newton Family Singers “One Voice” concert April 9
Dear Boston-area friends,
I have been on a social media diet for the past few weeks that will continue into April but want to alert and invite you to our upcoming Newton Family Singers concert on April 9, benefiting the Best Buddies organization. We are seeking sponsors for the concert to support the work of Best Buddies; for more information, please see here, and for the sponsorship form please see here. Thank you very much for your support and hope to see some of you at the concert!
A short interview on my current project
A brief Q&A discussing my current research project and related issues.
The Jesuits in early eighteenth-century Haiti
Looking forward to discussing “The Jesuits, the Souls of Slaves, and the Battle for Saint-Domingue, 1720-1730” with the Boston College Legal History Roundtable this coming Thursday.
Libertarianism in History
The syllabus for version 2.0 of my MIT course on “Libertarianism in History” can be found here.