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History Department Events
The Department of History hosts a number of speakers, receptions, and student presentations throughout the year. Please check this page frequently, as new events will be added periodically.
Upcoming Events
History on Tap
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Guest Speaker: Too Black
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What does it mean to conquer a people and then call said conquest a society? How does a fabricated society built upon conquest legitimise its actions? It must launder as a means to make its “grimey” activity appear clean. When opposition inevitably arises within the conquered, their rage must be subsumed by the State to further clean the oppression. Laundering Black Rage chronicles the rise of the capitalist State while examining the historical dillution of Black Rage. It demonstrates how the maintenance of capitalism increasingly requires the manufactured consent of the conquered.
Much has been made in international headlines about scandals of high-profile Black Lives Matter leaders following the George Floyd protests but what if the scandals were just gross expressions of a much more ingrained process of counterinsurgency? How was the contagious Black Rage provoked by the police officer's knee on a poor Black man's neck converted into a benign commodity that could be massively marketed by Disney? How does the Black Rage embroiled in the global south become justification for death making sanctions and regime change? Laundering Black Rage reaches behind the front to trace the criminal origins.
The spaces we occupy, the cities we breathe all bribe us with a lifestyle that compels us to carry on the laundering of conquest. For many, survival is dependent upon it. By examining how the state-fabricated formations of labour (race, class, gender) remain organised even when the conquered populations are clearly enraged, we hope to arrive at an analysis to help reverse the process.
Too Black is a poet, scholar, organizer and filmmaker who blends critical analysis with biting sarcasm. He has headlined various stages and events including the historic Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, Princeton University, and Johannesburg Theater in South Africa. His words have been published in online publications such as Black Agenda Report, Left Voice, Hammer and Hope and Hood Communist. He is currently the host of the Black Myths Podcast, a podcast debunking the BS said about Black people. Lastly, he the co-director of the award-winning documentary film The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up.
10th Biennial Purdue History Graduate Student Association Conference
at Purdue University in West Lafayette
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This conference is open to interested attendees, with content focused on topics of interest to graduate students and history majors, including those in the undergraduate History Honors program. Graduate students from universities outside of Purdue are welcome to attend!
Learn more and register for the 2025 HGSA Conference at this link.
Download the complete Conference Schedule as a PDF.
Past Events
"Fighting for Freedom Within the U.S. Army"
February 13, 2025
5:00-6:30 PM
RAWL 2079
Join us for the first Human Rights Lab of the semester, featuring Department of History Assistant Professor Dr. Jonathan Lande and graduate student Ignatius Gyapong. Dr. Lande will first present, then Ignatius will comment and open up the floor for Q&A. This Lab celebrates the publication of Dr. Lande’s recent book Freedom Soldiers as well as Black History Month.
“This talk will explore the experience of Black Civil War soldiers who abandoned their military posts for brief periods of time to support their enslaved families. These soldiers stated in military courts and from military prisons that they left to make freedom meaningful after decades in chains. Their dogged efforts reveal that the war of emancipation fought so bravely in combat continued in the army's camps and military justice systems.”