Who Owns Black Data? Vol. 2: The Past in Danger
This May, Yale University hosted the second installment of the acclaimed Who Owns Black Data? conference series
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2025
Who Owns Black Data? Vol. 2: Archival Reparations The Past in Danger
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - Yale University hosted the second installment of the acclaimed Who Owns Black Data? conference series last month. From May 13–14, an interdisciplinary cohort of scholars, writers, artists, archivists, librarians, and activists from across the Americas and Africa gathered at WOBD II, an event intended to amplify comprehensive dialogue about the ownership, governance, and future of Black historical data and cultural records on a global stage.
Together, they examined critical questions at the intersection of race, data, diaspora, history, feminism, politics and power. Additionally, the discourse that took place throughout WOBD II sought to explore answers to the question: Who owns and controls the Black historical and cultural record?
Funded by the Mellon Foundation, WOBD II is sponsored by the Black Beyond Data (BBD) ecosystem and continues to be a vital space for collaborative reflection and action. This year’s theme, Archival Reparations The Past in Danger, focused on protecting and transforming the infrastructures that support Black memory and knowledge. The “Ancestry, Genealogy and DNA” panel included insights from Melanie Maldonado (PROPA), Vincent Brown (Harvard), Matthew Smith (UCL), and Richard Cellini (Harvard).
Panelists Kathe Hambrick (Amistad Research Center), Dorothy Berry (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture), Connie Bell (Decolonizing the Archive) and Cheryl Beredo (Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library) explored creative strategies for preserving and repairing Black archival infrastructures continuously under duress in “Archival Reparations.” Other panels featured at WOBD II highlighted research at the frontier of Black health, artificial intelligence and ancestral networks while featuring work by scholars Kim Gallon (Brown University), Christopher Dancy (Penn State University), Nadejda Webb (Johns Hopkins University), and Jonathan Baynes (EINDEVR). The Black Bibliography Project provided an overview to attendees of their project development and outcomes.
Yale graduate student and WOBD II coordinator Sena Amuzu, performers Taylor Blackman, Davon Williams, and Lauren Walker stitched together plays, books and speeches centering Black life to ultimately ask attendees, “How will you be brave?” A Keynote Dialogue, moderated by Kim Gallon, featuring Tamara Lanier (Author and Activist), Marisa Parham (University of Maryland), Alondra Nelson (Institute for Advanced Study) and Yeshimabeit Milner (Data for Black Lives) concluded the gathering.
Convened by Drs. Jessica Marie Johnson, Alex Gil, Alexandre White, and Nadejda Webb, the Who Owns Black Data? conference series highlights the essential roles libraries, research centers, and digital humanities labs play in stewarding data justice and Black equity. With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, Black Beyond Data is not only hosting captivating convenings, but also building sustainable research methods and teaching pipelines for future generations of scholars, artists, activists and thinkers. The ongoing work of our community includes fellowships, open-access publications, public humanities projects, and technological innovation rooted in Black thought. Together, we stand firm in solidarity as we continue the rigorous fight toward equity, inclusion and justice.
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In solidarity,
LifexCode Communications Team
(Photo Credit: Reese Bland | IG: @reese.bland)
Black Beyond Data is building an ecosystem of scholars, policy-makers, medical professionals, technologists, and community organizers invested in centering Black lives in data study. Learn more: blackbeyonddata.org.