The W. E. B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was established in 2009 as a small department within the library at UMass and has continued to grow since then. Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, we are now able to offer fellowship positions, year-round programming and support to on-campus and community groups.
The Du Bois Center provides a home for interdisciplinary scholarship, a space for the discussion of vital issues relating to race, social justice, socio-economic inequality and the legacies of colonialism. The Du Bois Center’s mission is to make the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, and his contemporaries, available and accessible to everyone. We believe that Du Bois’ writings can contribute meaningfully to discussion of the problems and issues of the 21st Century. Alongside our public lectures, events and symposia, we aim to create new knowledge and support scholarship emanating from the life and teachings of W. E. B. Du Bois.
The Center supports new scholarship, community engagement and connects students, educators, scholars, and the public through lectures, symposia, fellowships and collaborations, to share the vast intellectual resources associated with W. E. B. Du Bois.
W. E. B. Du Bois shaking the hand of an unidentified delegate at the Afro-Asian Writers Conference in Tashkent, October 1958.