The W.E.B. DuBois Lecture Presents: Dr. Thavolia Glymph – Unofficial Hostilities: An Arithmetic of Freedom’s Making
In-Person Event | April 15, 2026 | 12:00 p.m. EST/ 11:00 a.m. CST/ 10:00 a.m. MST/ 9:00 a.m. PST
The W.E.B. DuBois Lecture Presents: Dr. Thavolia Glymph – Unofficial Hostilities: An Arithmetic of Freedom’s Making
Historians have captured in great detail the toll the Civil War took, especially in human life, and explored in rich detail the unevenness of freedom’s arrival, its precariousness and protracted nature. Less visible and accounted for in the scholarship is the war’s impact on the lives of Black women and children. This talk addresses this crucial, largely missing aspect of the war and its legacy.
Thavolia Glymph is one of the leading historians of 19th-century U.S. history, especially slavery, the Civil War, and African American women’s experiences. She is a professor at Duke University and served as the first Black woman president of the American Historical Association.
Her scholarship sits at the intersection of:
Slavery and emancipation
Gender and power
African American history
War and society (especially the Civil War)
Think of her work as shifting the lens: instead of focusing primarily on generals, battles, and political leaders, she centers households, women, and enslaved people as active historical agents.
Event Details:
Lunch: 12:00pm-1:15pm
Lecture: 1:30pm-2:45pm
