Notes on Black Thought 2.0

On April 6 - 7, at Duke University, Mark Anthony Neal hosted "Black Thought 2.0: New Media and the Future of Black Studies." The conference focused on "the roles of digital technology and social media in furthering the mission of Black Studies." The conference addressed how "scholars are using technologies to further their research, do collaborative forms of scholarship and activism, and to reach broader audiences."

The participants included African American Studies scholars, an emcee, a radio host, graduate students, bloggers, twitter activists, and a television host. It was a fruitfully eclectic mix in some ways with folks who shared common interests digital technologies and social media.

On Friday evening, S. Craig Watkins offered an overview of some of his projects and major concerns with technology in his keynote "Black Futures: Doing Black Studies in a Connected World."

The 4 panels on Saturday were "Precursors to Black Social Media," "Teaching and Researching in the Digital Age," "Activism in the Age of Social Media," and Social Media and Public Intellectuals." The discussions were a little more free-flowing than the titles would suggest since there were no paper-presentations but instead responses to questions offered by specific moderators.

I participated in the "teaching and researching" panel, and I jotted down notes throughout the gathering. I'll try to develop some of my scribblings into some entries that are a little more coherent so that I can share them here.

Entries 
• April 14: Jazz to Hip Hop: A Genre Shift in Black Intellectual History 
• April 13: Why the late 1990s Coverage of Black Public Intellectuals Still Matters 
• April 10: The Ghost of Harold Cruse's "Crisis of the Negro Intellectual" 
• April 8: Placing the Back Channel Up Front at Black Thought 2.0
• April 8: Mark Anthony Neal Shares His Audience 
• April 8: Broadcasting & Tweeting a Black Studies Conference
• April 8: Toward a History of Black Digital Intellectual Histories

Related:
A Notebook on Black Intellectual Histories