Join us for a student-led symposium highlighting preliminary investigations into Miami University’s connections to American slavery and freedom. In collaboration with the Walter Havighurst Special Collections, students in the yearlong 2026 Humanities Lab returned to archives to explore the University’s founding history, bringing into view the longer, overlooked history of African American presence, contributions, and experiences at Miami and in Oxford. From these investigations, students created campus tours, digital exhibits and collections, and individual research projects to share with the broader community.
“Miami and Slavery” engages with scholarship from universities in Ohio, across the United States, and abroad committed to studying their institutional histories of slavery. How might a similar project at Miami provide an opportunity to confront its history and forge a path toward truth-telling, moral accountability, and reconciliation, embodying the true spirit of Miami’s Code of Love and Honor? “Miami and Slavery” offers a framework for answering these fundamental questions and understanding the generations of Black individuals and families connected to Miami University.
RSVP here.
Keynote by Dr. Anna-Lisa Cox (Harvard University fellow). Refreshments will be provided.
Co-sponsors: Humanities Center, Menard Family Center for Democracy, Honors College, Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives, Department of History, Bethel A.M.E. Church
