Jacqueline Goldsby, Meredith L. McGill, and the Work of Convening a Black Bibliography Conference

Jacqueline Goldsby and Meredith L. McGill demonstrated the expansive scope of Black bibliographic work by organizing a conference that included such an eclectic group of people who engage books and print culture, thus signaling the multiplicity of bibliographic work as well as their project.

For all kinds of legitimate reasons, African American literary studies has become more specialized over the decades, as various subfields within the discipline have expanded and developed. Among other things, it’s common to attend conferences comprised of African American literary scholars in distinct areas. Keep in mind that for decades, scholars in our discipline resided on the margins of English. To build community and intellectual momentum, it’s become essential at moments to convene gatherings of scholars of Black literature.

Still, it’s a breakthrough of sorts when literary scholars like Goldsby and McGill find ways to bring together people across professional and intellectual domains who engage Black print and bibliography. It’s not enough to say such a gathering is interdisciplinary. A rare book dealer, designer, private collector, and bookstore owner, who presented, don’t fit so neatly in academic disciplines the ways that those terms are typically deployed.

Librarians are integral to the Black Bibliography Project, and not surprisingly, they were prominent participants at the conference. Their presence highlighted the extent to which bibliographic work depends on interpretation and access and the long-term care of materials.

Here’s a rundown of the conference sessions:

• Introducing the BBP database (Black Bibliography Project Core Team)
• The Preservation of Black Print (Librarians and curators)
• Concurrent hands-on sessions (1. Beta testing of the BBP Database; 2. Letterpress workshop; 3. Open Conversation on Sustainability)
• Lightning talks (Black Bibliography Project Fellows)
• Black Books and Visual Culture (Artists)
• Plenary Conversation #1: The Future of Black Print Collections (Directors and Curators of major Black archival collections)
• Concurrent hands-on sessions (1. Beta testing of the BBP Database; 2. Letterpress workshop; 3. Open Conversation on Sustainability)
• Black Digital Humanities (Leading scholars in Black Digital Humanities)
• Reimagining Scholarship with the BBP Database (Black Bibliography Project Graduate Student Fellows)
• The Movement of Black Books (Rare book collector, bookseller, rare book dealer)
• Plenary Conversation #2: Black Bibliography and the Practice of Black Studies

Goldsby and McGill put on a conference, and they also modeled what it means to convene across difference and build collaborative infrastructures for Black bibliographic work.

Related:

• A Notebook on the Networking Black Print Conference (April 2026)