Francille Rusan Wilson is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at the University of Southern California. She is an intellectual and labor historian whose current research examines the intersections between black labor movements, black social scientists, and black women’s history during the Jim Crow era.

Luke Williams is a scholar, artist, organizer and critic of twentieth and twenty-first century Black performance and visual cultures. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2024, he earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University in Modern Thought & Literature. His written work includes Blood, Sweat, and Time: Emerging Perspectives on Mildred Howard and Adrian Burrell (2024), published by SmingSming Books, and several scholarly and public-facing articles.

Rinaldo Walcott Is Professor and Chair of Africana and American Studies. He holds the Carl V. Granger Chair in Africana and American Studies. He is a writer and critic. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality with interests in nations, nationalisms, multiculturalism, policy and education broadly defined. As an interdisciplinary Black Studies scholar, Walcott has published in a wide range of venues on everything from literature to film, to theatre to music to policy.

Bryan Wagner is Professor in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on African American expression in the context of slavery and its aftermath, and he has specific interests in legal history, vernacular culture, urban studies, and digital humanities. 

Tracey Mia Stewart received her Ph.D. (2021) and M.A. (2016) in Music from the University of Virginia, and her Bachelors of Music with a concentration in Music History from Howard University (2012). She joins the Swarthmore Department of Music and Dance as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology for the 2021-2023 academic years. Tracey was born and raised in the New Cassel neighborhood of Westbury, New York.

Halimat Somotan is a social historian who studies the often-overlooked contributions of everyday urban dwellers to making cities more livable. A historian of twentieth-century Africa, her research focuses on decolonization, postcolonial rule, urban history, and women’s history.