Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Learn more about the John Hope Franklin Legacies Series at: https://fhi.duke.edu/programs/john-hope-franklin-legacies-series
On October 27, 2007, two pre-eminent historians had a wide-ranging and remarkable conversation at Duke University. Among other topics, they discussed the commonalities shared by historians in such different fields as ancient Indian and modern American history; the role of interpretation and method in the writing of history; the constraints presented by periodization, nationalism, and Eurocentrism; and how they found themselves embroiled in controversies over school curricula and history textbooks that emerged as cultural flash points.
These historians were the late John Hope Franklin, pathbreaking scholar of African American history, and Romila Thapar, world-renowned expert on ancient India, who was in residence at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) for the 2007-2008 academic year. The event was “The Historian in the World.”
Earlier this year, FHI revisited the “The Historian in the World” through the lens of the present, with remarks from distinguished historians Laurent Dubois (UVA), Robin D. G. Kelley (UCLA), and, joining us once more, Romila Thapar (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Emerita), whose work continues to complicate nationalist narratives. FHI Director Ranjana Khanna moderated.
This event was part of the John Hope Franklin Legacies Series and part of an ongoing effort to reactivate and reexamine archival materials from FHI’s past.
Since 2015, the Franklin Humanities Institute has sponsored an event series in honor of our namesake, Dr. John Hope Franklin. We take seriously Dr. Franklin's demand to attend to both the untold stories and the familiar ones - “intellectualizing them,” as he put it - and to place those stories in the context of the world.
In Spring 2018, we launched a new annual lecture – the John Hope Franklin Lecture – as the signature event of the broader John Hope Franklin Legacies Series. Featuring prominent writers, thinkers, and artists with bodies of work that resonate within and beyond the university, the John Hope Franklin Lecture pays tribute to Dr. Franklin’s remarkable career as a scholar and in public service, as well as his wide-ranging influence in the study of history, law, African-American life and culture, and global intellectual exchange.
Panelists:
• Laurent Dubois is John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy and Director for Academic Affairs of the Democracy Initiative at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist on the history and culture of the Atlantic world who studies the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), North America, and France.
• Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor of History and African American Studies and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research explores the history of social movements in the U.S., the African diaspora, and Africa - extending into research on Black intellectuals, music and visual culture, and surrealism and Marxism.
• Romila Thapar is Professor Emerita in History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and has served as a visiting professor at a number of academic institutions around the world including London University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. A leading scholar on ancient India, her work has been part of the shift from treating ancient history as Indology to establishing it as a Social Science.
Learn more about the John Hope Franklin Legacies Series at: https://fhi.duke.edu/programs/john-hope-franklin-legacies-series
On October 27, 2007, two pre-eminent historians had a wide-ranging and remarkable conversation at Duke University. Among other topics, they discussed the commonalities shared by historians in such different fields as ancient Indian and modern American history; the role of interpretation and method in the writing of history; the constraints presented by periodization, nationalism, and Eurocentrism; and how they found themselves embroiled in controversies over school curricula and history textbooks that emerged as cultural flash points.
These historians were the late John Hope Franklin, pathbreaking scholar of African American history, and Romila Thapar, world-renowned expert on ancient India, who was in residence at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) for the 2007-2008 academic year. The event was “The Historian in the World.”
Earlier this year, FHI revisited the “The Historian in the World” through the lens of the present, with remarks from distinguished historians Laurent Dubois (UVA), Robin D. G. Kelley (UCLA), and, joining us once more, Romila Thapar (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Emerita), whose work continues to complicate nationalist narratives. FHI Director Ranjana Khanna moderated.
This event was part of the John Hope Franklin Legacies Series and part of an ongoing effort to reactivate and reexamine archival materials from FHI’s past.
Since 2015, the Franklin Humanities Institute has sponsored an event series in honor of our namesake, Dr. John Hope Franklin. We take seriously Dr. Franklin's demand to attend to both the untold stories and the familiar ones - “intellectualizing them,” as he put it - and to place those stories in the context of the world.
In Spring 2018, we launched a new annual lecture – the John Hope Franklin Lecture – as the signature event of the broader John Hope Franklin Legacies Series. Featuring prominent writers, thinkers, and artists with bodies of work that resonate within and beyond the university, the John Hope Franklin Lecture pays tribute to Dr. Franklin’s remarkable career as a scholar and in public service, as well as his wide-ranging influence in the study of history, law, African-American life and culture, and global intellectual exchange.
Panelists:
• Laurent Dubois is John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy and Director for Academic Affairs of the Democracy Initiative at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist on the history and culture of the Atlantic world who studies the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), North America, and France.
• Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor of History and African American Studies and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research explores the history of social movements in the U.S., the African diaspora, and Africa - extending into research on Black intellectuals, music and visual culture, and surrealism and Marxism.
• Romila Thapar is Professor Emerita in History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and has served as a visiting professor at a number of academic institutions around the world including London University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. A leading scholar on ancient India, her work has been part of the shift from treating ancient history as Indology to establishing it as a Social Science.
