Left of Black

Left of Black is the Webby Awards-nominated web series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars created and hosted by James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Mark Anthony Neal. From 2010-2020, it was produced by the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Global Studies. In 2020, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute took over production, with funding support from Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

“I think where the humanities are at this moment nationally, where the humanities are at Duke, it is important for humanities-minded entities to begin to pool resources and collaborate in support of the value of the humanities," said Mark Anthony Neal. "For me, there was no one entity at Duke that was more committed to that work than the Franklin Humanities Institute."

"The series is a deep engagement with the body of work produced in Black Studies over the last ten years: scholarship and art that has shaped the humanities more broadly and equipped our fields with the important analytical frameworks so essential today. African and African American Studies and FHI used to be neighbors in the John Hope Franklin Center. It’s good to be in proximity again and in conversation with the rigorous standard set for both Black Studies and the humanities more broadly by John Hope Franklin."

Left of Black on X