The River Campus Libraries and the Frederick Douglass Institute and Department of Black Studies invite you to attend a Neilly Author Series talk from Julius B. Fleming, Jr., an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. Fleming specializes in Afro-Diasporic literatures and cultures, he has particular interests in performance studies, Black political culture, diaspora, and colonialism, especially where they intersect with race, gender, and sexuality.

In his talk, Fleming will focus on the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of Black theatre through his book Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation. The book analyzes a largely unexplored, transnational archive of Black theatre and demonstrates how Black artists and activists used theatre and performance to unsettle the demands of a violent racial project he terms “Black patience.”

Fleming has begun work on his next book, which will explore the new geographies of colonial expansion and their impact on Afro-diasporic literary and cultural production.

A recipient of fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the University of Virginia's Carter G. Woodson Institute, Fleming’s work has appeared in journals including American Literature, American Literary History, South Atlantic Quarterly, Callaloo, and The James Baldwin Review. He has also served as associate editor of Callaloo and Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society. Fleming earned a doctorate in English and a graduate certificate in Africana studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

The 2023–24 season of the Neilly Series is dedicated to creation of the Department of Black Studies. In celebration of the department’s inaugural year, the books highlighted in this season’s Neilly talks will feature Black authors and a variety of perspectives on racism, freedom, and the Black experience.