As part of the Campus Iconography Committee (CIC), the Princeton History Working Group (PHWG) works to create visual cues on campus that tell nuanced interpretations of Princeton University’s history. PHWG’s work brings to light some of the University’s lesser-known histories in order to build a more complete narrative of Princeton’s past. Reintroducing complexity and nuance regarding race, gender and other identities into the narrative history of Princeton can help Princeton become a more inclusive place for members of the University community. PHWG is an interdepartmental advisory group composed of students, staff and faculty, and collaborates with a number of University centers, departments and offices, as well as community organizations and partners. PHWG initiatives include both temporary and permanent projects. They take a variety of forms, including exhibits, historical markers, walking tours and orientation programming.

The Black impossible is at once about continuing to live and resist in the face of the debilitating policies of modernity (impossible to do, but nevertheless done), yet also about the seeming impossibility of ever just living. The Black impossible draws together modes of cultural responses to the ethos of life and living in the face of practices of discipline and death. On the fiftieth anniversary of Black Studies, it asks us to bring together the critical methodologies and creative practices of Black Study to bear on the now and the future. The second biannual conference of the African American Studies Department at Princeton University will explore the contemporary cultures of the Black impossible. This conference seeks to bring together intellectuals, artists, and organizers working across many different disciplines, mediums, and movements that speak to the cultures and the impossibility of Black life in the U.S. and abroad.