This spring, the Frederick Douglass Institute and the Department of Black Studies will convene a university-wide spring symposium entitled 250 Years of the American Experiment: Critical Reflections, with panelists from our University of Rochester community. 

Commemorating the nation’s 250th year, this symposium refuses easy celebration. Instead, it takes seriously the language of “experiment.” An experiment suggests risk, trial, revision, failure, and possibility. It implies design—and unintended consequences. It demands evaluation. Two and a half centuries into the American project, we ask not only what has endured, but what has been tested, who has borne the cost, and what futures remain open. 

We hope you can join us! Register here to attend.