CACE Annual Conference

Our annual Conference on African American and African Diasporic Cultures and Experiences brings national and international speakers, community partners, and showcases student and alumni participation.

Our annual conference, established in 1989 with the first conference taking place in 1990, brings national and international speakers and showcases student participation from UNCG majors, minors, and alumni who often go on to careers in leadership and advocacy. Community partners include area educators, librarians, farmers, artists, musicians, environmentalists, preservationists, museums, and partner colleges and universities. Keynote speakers have included Annette Gordon-Reed, bell hooks, Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West, and Lenora Fulani.

CACE 2026
February 24-26, 2026

Race and Education

The 36^th annual CACE Conference addresses Race and Education. Academic panels, workshops, roundtables, keynotes, poetry, and performances will address: history, memory, unconventional archives, North Carolina African American educational institutions, popular culture, media and digital history, mentorship and leadership the power of autobiography and intersectionality, music, representation, incarceration and structural inequality, care, and mental health advocacy.

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Celebrating the 100^_TH ANNIVERSARY OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

AADS honors the educational legacy of Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), who initiated Negro History Week in February 1926.

Woodson, an accomplished historian and journalist, recognized the importance of education and awareness of African American accomplishments and contributions to the U.S. These accomplishments were, in his words, “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of textbooks and the teachers who use them.” He created “Negro history kits” and teacher curriculum to counter this ignorance.

Woodson dedicated his life to advancing research and education about African Americans. He founded a press, a journal, and a professional society to support academic discourse and understanding of African American history and life. The son of enslaved people from Virginia, Woodson worked as an agricultural laborer and later a miner while earning a high school diploma. He went on to earn a B.A. (Berea), an M.A. (UChicago), and a Ph.D. (Harvard). Learn More

Recent CACE Conferences

2025 CACE Conference

February 17 – 20, 2025

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Global Ecologies: Growing the World We Want

The 35th annual CACE 2025 addresses Global Ecologies: Growing the World We Want. Academic conference papers, non-traditional presentations, artist exhibits and performances address the many aspects of global ecology, including arts, humanities, and stem-related imaginings of global networks, experiences, and futures. Presentations, roundtables, and readings discuss established and emergent experiences pertaining to belief, understanding, and activism in African American, African, and African Diasporic Communities.

Made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

2024 CACE Conference

February 20 – 23, 2024

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Made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

“Black Studies Matters, Black Stories Matter!
Black Knowledge Practices, Black Futures”

CACE 2024 addresses the importance of Black Studies and Black Stories. The conference addresses music, poetry, movement and wellness; stories of resilience and Black futures; culture, politics and economics – knowledge as action; and the lively arts. Come learn about Hip Hop and education, walking Black history at UNCG, public history and social justice, environmental movements, farming and food security, geographies and cultures of the diaspora, African American stories in digital media, Black wealth and class struggle, poetry and performance as resistance, and more.

In addition to four keynote events, this year’s conference features traditional papers, panel discussions, roundtables and other creative formats that highlight the processes of Black
Studies and its advocacy for Black stories in higher education and the community at large.