The Department of English at Florida State University will host a two-day symposium titled “Preserving African-American Literary Culture: Toni Morrison and Twenty-first Century Intellectual History.”

The symposium, which takes place Thursday, March 24, and Friday, March 25, will feature Dana Williams, chair and professor of African American Literature in the Department of English at Howard University, and Christopher Okonkwo, an FSU alumnus and associate professor of English at the University of Missouri.

All events are free and open to the public:

Thursday, March 24

3 p.m.

Christopher Okonkwo will give the talk “The Imperative of Latitudinal New Directions in Achebe and Morrison Studies” in Williams 013 (Common Room, ground floor).

Friday, March 25

10:30 a.m.

Christopher Okonkwo will host a Q&A with students in the Williams Skybox on the fourth floor. FSU Provost Jim Clark will deliver opening remarks.

3 p.m.

Dana Williams will deliver the keynote address titled “There Needs to Be a Record: Toni Morrison, Editor of Blackness” in Williams 013 (Common Room, ground floor).

Virtual attendance is available at: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/94042747389. Meeting ID: 940 4274 7389.

This event is sponsored by the Literature, Media, and Culture Program of Florida State University’s Department of English with additional support from the English Department’s Diversity Reading Initiative.