Black Queer Studies Conference
April 4 @ 8:00 am - April 6 @ 5:00 pm
Black Queer Studies Conference 2025
25th Anniversary
APRIL 4–6th, 2025 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BQSC25 is a significant event celebrating and interrogating the intersections of Blackness and queerness in everyday life as well as in the cultural imaginary.
Conference Details
The conference is located in Hyde Hall on Friday and Saturday, April 4-5 and at the Love House on Sunday, April 6.
The conference will host 8 panels consisting of 4-6 participants each. These panels will facilitate moderated public conversations focused on themes of Blackness and queerness, with each panel featuring a series of collaborative questions and a short position statement available to attendees.
Conference Schedule
Day One – April 4, 2025
8am | REGISTRATION OPEN
9:00am | Welcome by Jennifer Nash
9:30-11:00am | Representing the Race: Queer Images of Blackness
Panelists: Charles Nero (Moderator), Yvonne Welbon, Thomas Allen Harris, Amber Musser, Ashon Crawley
11:00-11:30am | BREAK
11:30am-1:00pm | Disciplinary Tensions: Black Studies and Queer Studies
Panelists: Dwight McBride (Moderator), Sharon Holland, Rinaldo Walcott, Jeffrey McCune, Roderick Ferguson, Michelle Wright, Olivia Polk
1:00-2:30pm | LUNCH BREAK
2:30-4:00pm | How to Teach the Unspeakable: Race, Queer Studies & Pedagogy
Panelists: Bryant Keith Alexander (Moderator), Keith Clark, Maurice Wallace, Kaila Story, Shoniqua Roach, Reginald Blockett, Beverly Guy Sheftall
4:00-4:30pm | BREAK
4:30-6:00 pm | Keynote Conversation between Evelynn Hammonds & E. Patrick Johnson
Day Two – April 5, 2025
8am | REGISTRATION OPEN
9:30-11:00am | Policing Black Bodies: Queer Studies, Public Policy, and The Law
Panelists: Cathy Cohen (Moderator), Charlene Carruthers, Andrea Ritchie, Kylar Broadus, Mel Michelle Lewis, Shannon Malone Gonzalez
11:00-11:30am | BREAK
11:30am-1:00pm | Black Queer Digitality
Panelists: Shaka McGlotten (Moderator), AJ Christian, Moya Bailey, Brian Horton, Legacy Russell, Quortne R. Hutchins
1:00-2:30pm | LUNCH BREAK
2:30-4:00pm | Black Queer South: Regionalism & Transnational Flows
Panelists: Jafari Allen (Moderator), Nikki Lane, Tanya Saunders, Lyndon Gill, Rico Self, LaToya Eaves, Darius Scott
7:30pm | Strange Fruit: Sowing the seeds of Change, Resistance, and Personal Power Performances | CURRENT Artspace+ Studio
- Performance #1: “Strange Fruit” Written By E. Patrick Johnson, Performed By Jamar Jones
- Performance #2: “How Does It feel to Be a Problem” Written and performed by Daniel Coleman
- Performance #3: “Earth Wind and Car Fire” Written and performed by Janora McDuffie
- Performance #4: “Wildseed: Gender, Mutability, and Power” A performative provocation written and performed by Comm 661
Day Three – April 6, 2025
8am | REGISTRATION OPEN
9:30-11:00am | Black Queer Writing: Who’s Reading Us?
Panelists: Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Moderator), Daniel Black, Briona Simone Jones, Mecca Jamillah Sullivan, Destiny Hemphill
11:00-11:30am | BREAK
11:30am-1:00pm | Black Queer Identities: Sex & the Future of Queerness
Panelists: Jennifer DeVere Brody (Moderator), Marlon M. Bailey, LaMonda H. Stallings, Julian Glover, C. Riley Snorton, Mary Anne Adams, Ianna Hawkins Owen
1:30-4:30pm | Community Picnic | Love House
Keynote Conversation
The keynote conversation between Dr. Evelynn Hammond and Dr. E. Patrick Johnson will focus on how the failure of queer studies in the late 1980s/early1990s to consider race prompted a generation of scholars, artists, and activists to address the absence.
Beyond panel discussions, the conference will include performances, film screenings, a curated exhibition, a keynote conversation and both an opening reception and closing community picnic.
These events are free and open to the public, but registration is required as space is limited. Registration link: https://www.bqsc25.org/register.