Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Read the article: https://fhi.duke.edu/news/jarvis-mcinnis-marks-fhi-return-afterlives-plantation/
Get "Afterlives of the Plantation" from Columbia U. Press here: https://duke.is/b/dprr
In his first book-length monograph, Duke professor Dr. Jarvis McInnis establishes Booker T. Washington's school, Tuskegee Institute, as a site of agrarian worldmaking, modern black subjectivity, and diasporic formation in the early 20th century. "Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South," illuminates how a host of Black artists, intellectuals, and political leaders-including George Washington Carver, Jean Price-Mars, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and Marcus Garvey, among others-adapted Tuskegee's methods into dynamic strategies for liberation across the hemisphere, from the US South to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica. Mining the ruins of the plantation, these figures forged new theories and practices of black self-determination, aesthetic innovation, and freedom in slavery's aftermath.
Dr. Jarvis C. McInnis is an Associate Professor of English at Duke University. He is a proud summa cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, where he earned a BA in English. He later went to Columbia University in the City of New York, where he earned a Ph.D. in English & Comparative Literature.
In this Faculty Bookwatch event, five brilliant interdisciplinary scholars respond to Dr. McInnis's groundbreaking new book. The panelists include:
• Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Helen L. Bevington Associate Professor of Modern Poetry, English, and African & African American Studies, Duke University
• Chris Ernest Ouma, Associate Professor of English, Duke University
• Norbert Lance Weston Wilson, Professor of Food, Economics and Community, Duke Divinity School, Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, and the Director of the World Food Policy Center, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
• Sharon P. Holland, Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor in American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Danielle Purifoy, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Moderated by Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies, Duke University
Jointly hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Libraries since 2004, Faculty Bookwatch is an event series that promotes interdisciplinary conversations on notable recent books by Duke faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Each program brings together a panel of distinguished colleagues from Duke and other universities, giving brief comments on the significance and impact of the featured book. The author also participates in the panel and the following Q&A.
This event was co-hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and the Duke University Libraries. Co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Department of African & African American Studies. @dukeuniversitysdepartmento2485 @dukeuniversity @FranklinHumanities
Read the article: https://fhi.duke.edu/news/jarvis-mcinnis-marks-fhi-return-afterlives-plantation/
Get "Afterlives of the Plantation" from Columbia U. Press here: https://duke.is/b/dprr
In his first book-length monograph, Duke professor Dr. Jarvis McInnis establishes Booker T. Washington's school, Tuskegee Institute, as a site of agrarian worldmaking, modern black subjectivity, and diasporic formation in the early 20th century. "Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South," illuminates how a host of Black artists, intellectuals, and political leaders-including George Washington Carver, Jean Price-Mars, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and Marcus Garvey, among others-adapted Tuskegee's methods into dynamic strategies for liberation across the hemisphere, from the US South to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica. Mining the ruins of the plantation, these figures forged new theories and practices of black self-determination, aesthetic innovation, and freedom in slavery's aftermath.
Dr. Jarvis C. McInnis is an Associate Professor of English at Duke University. He is a proud summa cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, where he earned a BA in English. He later went to Columbia University in the City of New York, where he earned a Ph.D. in English & Comparative Literature.
In this Faculty Bookwatch event, five brilliant interdisciplinary scholars respond to Dr. McInnis's groundbreaking new book. The panelists include:
• Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Helen L. Bevington Associate Professor of Modern Poetry, English, and African & African American Studies, Duke University
• Chris Ernest Ouma, Associate Professor of English, Duke University
• Norbert Lance Weston Wilson, Professor of Food, Economics and Community, Duke Divinity School, Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, and the Director of the World Food Policy Center, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
• Sharon P. Holland, Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor in American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Danielle Purifoy, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Moderated by Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies, Duke University
Jointly hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Libraries since 2004, Faculty Bookwatch is an event series that promotes interdisciplinary conversations on notable recent books by Duke faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Each program brings together a panel of distinguished colleagues from Duke and other universities, giving brief comments on the significance and impact of the featured book. The author also participates in the panel and the following Q&A.
This event was co-hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and the Duke University Libraries. Co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Department of African & African American Studies. @dukeuniversitysdepartmento2485 @dukeuniversity @FranklinHumanities
