About the seminar

Across the United States, academic freedom faces growing challenges. Debates over curriculum, speech and institutional governance raise urgent questions about the role of the university in a democratic society. At the same time, as universities become increasingly reliant on private funding, tensions are emerging between faculty and student research and the interests of donors, foundations and corporate partners. Further, Missouri has become a key site for legislative efforts to shape educational curricula. Some argue that these interventions risk limiting the range of perspectives and critical analyses essential to understanding history and contemporary social life.

These conditions create a critical moment for examining how universities can sustain open inquiry, inclusive knowledge production and democratic engagement.

This Sawyer Seminar, convened by Department of African and African American Studies and the Center for the Humanities, examines how Black studies can help sustain academic freedom and reimagine democratic higher education. The seminar unfolds through a yearlong series of themed conversations that bring together faculty, students, community partners and national leaders. Collectively, participants will examine how Black studies — an interdisciplinary field that draws from disciplines such as anthropology, education, history, literature, political science, psychology and sociology to understand structures of power, inequality and resistance — is a vital framework for understanding the past, navigating the present and shaping the future of higher education.

Seminars take place monthly, September 2026 through May 2027, each featuring public events and smaller convenings of university and community members.