WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dr. Kendra Field will present a talk titled "The Stories We Tell: Understanding the Long History of African American Genealogy" at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, at the Williams College Museum of Art.

 

The lecture, in conjunction with the current exhibition "Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation," will explore the long history of African American genealogy from the Middle Passage to the present, drawing upon stories and experiences within Field's own family history. 

 

Field will touch upon the diversity of methods employed by historians and genealogists; descendants' often uneven access to the familial past—itself a legacy of American slavery; and the emergence of the recently launched 10 Million Names project.

 

Field, associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University, wrote "Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War" (Yale, 2018), which traced her own ancestors' experiences in slavery and the post-emancipation era. Her forthcoming book, "The Stories We Tell" (W.W. Norton), is a history of African American genealogy and family storytelling from the Middle Passage to the present.

 

The lecture is free and open to the public.