Call for Papers

This workshop has the mission of bringing together scholars who are engaged in Black diasporic histories, in particular on the early presence and influence in Europe prior to the Atlantic slavery. The central focus is on the prehistoric, classical and medieval periods. By relying on empirically grounded, critically engaged, and methodologically rigorous findings, the workshop seeks to spark more discussions about Africa-Europe historical connections before the 15th century. In essence, the goal is to broaden the field of Black diasporic studies beyond the traditional focus on Atlantic slavery.

There is an increasing scholarly acknowledgement of the deep and complex history of Black presence and influence in Europe prior to the Atlantic slavery. Historians like Runoko Rashidi, who foregrounded the presence of Black figures in classical antiquity, medieval courts, and early Christian iconography, laid the groundwork for challenging dominant historical narratives that relegated Blackness to the margins of European history. However, these efforts – along with several others, remain fragmented and insufficient in both scope and analysis. As a result, there has been a persistent distortion and marginalization of the role of Black individuals in Europe’s early history. It is little wonder, then, that there remains a significant lacuna in both academic and public knowledge about the Black experience in Europe.

As far as the prehistoric period is concerned, evidence of hominins and early Homo sapiens from Africa – such as the Grimaldi remains found in Italy – is often excluded from dominant narratives of European origins. The classical period, although it recorded a significant number of Black traders, soldiers, philosophers, and diplomats in Greco-Roman societies, is rarely subjected to analytical scrutiny beyond symbolic or tokenistic reference. In the medieval period, despite the enduring contributions of Black Muslims in Al-Andalus and across the wider Mediterranean, these legacies continue to be marginalized, exoticized, or remembered only in selective terms.

This workshop invites participants to critically interrogate these historiographical patterns and to offer new readings that recover and reframe the complexity of Black-European entanglements before 15^th century. Scholars employing diverse methods and approaches to uncover and interpret early Black histories in Europe are especially encouraged to contribute. Of particular interest are decolonial approaches and methodological innovations that challenge dominant epistemologies and offer more inclusive frameworks for writing African-European history. 

To guide these conversations, we encourage submissions that engage with the following questions:
1. what forms of evidence can allow us to trace the presence and significance of Black populations in Europe across prehistoric, classical, and medieval contexts?
2. how do current efforts to retrieve these histories intersect with broader intellectual projects aimed at decolonizing knowledge and reimagining Europe’s past through the lens of Africa’s historical presence?
3. which methodological approaches can best uncover and reconstruct these early histories from archives and records marked by fragmentation, distortion, or erasure?
4. in what ways did religion, empire, migration, and trade shape how Black individuals were received, integrated, and remembered in various regions of Europe?

By revisiting these underexplored trajectories, the workshop seeks to reposition early Black histories as vital components of Europe’s development. In doing so, it contributes to the ongoing work of rethinking Black diasporic history, while advocating for a more historically grounded and globally interconnected understanding of the European past

Submission Guidelines 

Scholars, researchers, artists, activists, and other related practitioners engaged with the central theme of the workshop are invited to submit abstracts of a maximum of 300 words for consideration. Submissions with clear indications of aims, methodology and correlation with the workshop themes will be highly considered. 

Abstract Deadline: September 30, 2025 
Notification of Acceptance:  November 10, 2025
Submission Email: temitope.fagunwa@leuphana.de