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The Making of a South Florida Black Humanities Institution

The African American Research Library and Cultural Center

William García-Medina discusses the role of the African American Research Library in memory work. He is joined by Julio Capo, Jr., Deputy Director of the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab at FIU.

Dr. García-Medina is a scholar, writer, and educational consultant and practitioner. His research focuses on Black diasporic public humanities, AfroLatinx education, cultural studies, and museum studies. García-Medina completed a doctorate in American Studies with a certificate in museum studies. His dissertation, ”Making Black Public Humanities in South Florida: Fugitive Pedagogies, Self-Making, and Memory Work" focuses on defining Black public humanities as a theory and practice. His research about Fort Lauderdale's African American Research Library and Cultural Center highlights the importance of local Black diasporic communities in the making of Black public humanities that engages and centers these communities.  He seeks to make a contribution to the field of Black public humanities by examining the history and achievements of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. García-Medina has provided educational consulting, training, and workshops for numerous organizations, universities, school districts, and museums. He's taught courses in Latino Studies, American Studies, and Black Studies and has published in these fields in academic journals, blogs, and podcasts. García-Medina has contributed to Latino Rebels since 2015 and has been a guest on national broadcast radio such as Latino USA and NPR. He tweets from @afrolatinoed.

The field of public humanities has been extensively discussed in museum studies, there is little scholarship that examines how Black public humanities initiatives can be exemplary and academically useful to the field of public humanities, museum, and library studies as a whole. His study of the AARLCC through observation, participation, archival research and interviews has revealed how we must pay attention to what such institutions are doing to maintain a public-facing and publicly-engaged humanities initiative. Their ability to create programming and events that center the general public has generated more public engagement and unity amongst its Black diverse community.

Dr. Julio Capo, Jr. serves as Deputy Director for the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab in the History Department of Florida International University.  He is a transnational historian whose research and teaching interests include modern U.S. history, especially the United States’s relationship to the Caribbean and Latin America. He addresses how gender and sexuality have historically intersected with constructions of ethnicity, race, class, nation, age, and ability. He teaches introductory and specialized courses on all these subjects, as well as courses on public history.

Dr. Tameka Hobbs will serve as the moderator for the discussion.  She serves as Library Regional Manager at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center.

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