About The Black Fantastic

The Lab hosts regular events and co-sponsors activities for the UVA campus and external communities. The Lab presents talks by scholars and individuals in the media industry, offers colloquia and workshops, and presents symposia. Regional programming is particularly emphasized, thereby facilitating deepened expertise and positive relationships with communities surrounding UVA and across the region.

The study of Black media and popular culture examines those ideas and beliefs, experiences and affective responses, objects and expressive culture unified by the “Black repertoire” (Stuart Hall, 1992) of Black life, identity politics, representation, and exhibition of symbolization. This work comes at a crucial time in U.S. history with the increased call for an understanding of constructions of Blackness, meaning-making/interpretation of mediated messages, and approaches to anti-racism.

The Black Fantastic Media Research Lab will:
· Produce research examining Black media and popular culture
· Host an annual, themed symposium and workshop series
· Present screenings, engage with the campus and external communities, host events
· Host bi-weekly research and writing group sessions