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National Agricultural Library
U.S. Department of Agriculture
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Locating Black Stories at the National Agricultural Library

  • Special Event

Inaugural NAL Scholar in Residence, Dr. Bobby Smith, II, will talk about his experience doing archival research at NAL to recover stories around Black people's historical relationship to agriculture via the USDA. Dr. Lopez Matthews, State Archivist and Public Records Administrator for the District of Columbia, will provide commentary. 

Date
May 22, 2024 10:00AM - 11:30AM

All events listed in Eastern Time (US and Canada).

Location
In person at the National Agricultural Library and Online

If you need an accommodation to attend, please contact us five business days in advance.

Speakers

Dr. Bobby Smith II

Dr. Bobby J. Smith II is an interdisciplinary scholar of the African American agricultural and food experience. Trained as a sociologist, with a background in agricultural economics, Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies and Fellow in Policy Design Lab in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with affiliations in the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition, and the Center for Social & Behavioral Science. His research program and teaching agenda cultivates an intellectual sphere and public space to interpret how Black people build agricultural and food systems amid inequalities that orbit the Black world. At the same time, Dr. Smith’s research and teaching illuminates how the building of agricultural and food systems by Black people reconfigures pre-existing conceptualizations of agriculture and food. 

Dr. Lopez Matthews

Dr. Lopez D. Matthews Jr., Ph.D., is the State Archivist and Public Records Administrator for the District of Columbia. In this capacity, he serves as the Historian of the District of Columbia, Chair of the D.C. Historical Records Advisory Board, and Director of the DC Office of Public Records and Archives. A native of Baltimore Maryland, he earned a BS in History from Coppin State University in 2004. He then earned a master’s degree in Public History and Archival Administration from Howard University in 2006 and a Ph.D. in United States History from Howard University in 2009.