Black Europe 2026

On October 2 and 3, 2026, CBESA will convene BLACK EUROPE 2026 at the House of European History in Brussels. This second biennial conference approaches Blackness as a generative place without which Europe itself cannot be understood. Bringing together scholars, artists, writers, and cultural organizers from across Europe and the Atlantic world, the conference will ask what becomes visible when Black experiences and intellectual traditions are understood as part of the making of Europe.

The first day (Friday October 2) will take the form of a closed working session devoted to assessing the state of Black European Studies and imagining the intellectual and institutional structures needed for its future. Saturday October 3 is the public day, free and open to the public. Panels will highlight research and artistic practices emerging from Spain, Poland, Italy, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and beyond.

Participants include historian Olivette Otele; scholars Kia Caldwell, Sunnie Rucker-Chang, Maisha Auma, Félix Germain, and Margaret Ohia-Nowak; professor and cultural producer Tania Safura Adam; curator and writer Johanne Affricot of SPAZIO GRIOT; and Marsha Harvey-Isaakson, founder of the Southnord project and many more. Together, they will explore the different languages, histories, and institutional realities through which Black Europe is being imagined and built. The conference will also mark the launch of the Journal of Black European Studies, a new multilingual and transnational publication, and the presentation of Beatriz Nascimento: Pour une féminothèque de l’Atlantique noir, the first collection of Beatriz Nascimento’s writings published in French.

BLACK EUROPE 2026 is organized by CBESA with the support of the House of European History and Carnegie Mellon University. All Saturday sessions are free and open to the public.