Malcolm X Centennial Conference: Solidarity, Nation, Liberation

In May of 2025, Malcolm X would have turned 100 years old. As a Black man and devout Muslim, he thought deeply about the tenets of Islam, working tirelessly to share his faith while struggling against white supremacy. He grew up in poverty, experiencing police brutality, incarceration, and state-sponsored oppression of the working class. He was an expert rhetorician who made momentous theoretical contributions to the liberation movements of the 1960s. Malcolm X also spent many of his formative years in and nearby East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University. One-hundred years after his birth, scholars at Michigan State University are convening an interdisciplinary conference on March 21st and 22nd, 2025 to celebrate the legacy of Malcolm X.

Spearheaded by graduate students in the Department of Philosophy and advised by faculty in Muslim Studies, Religious Studies, African and African American Studies, Media Studies, and History, this interdisciplinary conference invites any scholarship pertaining to Malcolm X or the issues he championed or fought against. We invite abstract proposals considering any issues relating to this legacy, including:

• Malcolm X and Islam, the Nation of Islam, the Black Radical Tradition, the Black Liberation Movement, his peers, or other connections

• The role of religion in modern life and community activism

• Theorizing oppression and liberation

• Philosophies of race and racism

• Radicalism in African American Philosophy

• Community organizing history, tactics, and strategy

• Muslim history and experience in the United States

• Theories of nationalism and national resistance

• Theories of decolonization and decolonial resistance

• The history of nationalism, human rights, and Eurocentrism

• The Civil Rights movement and the status of civil and human rights in the contemporary United States

Abstract submissions should be between 150 and 300 words. The deadline for submission is 11:59 pm ET on Friday, January 10th, 2025, and only abstracts will be reviewed. Submissions are open to graduate students, undergraduate students, autodidacts, and junior scholars, though no fewer than half of the accepted submissions will be reserved for graduate students. We expect to announce the abstracts selected for presentation in early February. Completed papers will be expected in early March. The conference will be hosted in-person at the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, though organizers will be flexible working to accommodate presenters’ needs.

Submit abstracts in the Google form here: https://forms.gle/9uwMaEVt46XFrMHh9

Malcolm X was an organic intellectual and he was never a member of the academy; his project was, first and foremost, one of community organizing. In honoring his legacy, conference organizers are reaching out to community organizers who take inspiration from Malcolm X to collaborate on planning elements of the conference. Details will be shared as the conference approaches

Questions? Conference organizers can be reached by email [email protected]

Graduate students conference organizers in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University are supported by and working with the Muslim Studies Program, the Graduate School, the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the College of Education, and the Council of Graduate Students at Michigan State University, as well as other radical individuals in the Lansing, East Lansing, and Detroit communities. We are affiliated with and committee members of the MalcolmX100 national program.