Events

The BCaT Lab hosts several events each semester, alongside open lab hours between 10am - 3pm from Tuesday to Thursday.

If you’re interested in being active with BCaT, explore what events we’re hosting below or subscribe to our Google Calendar to be the first to know what we’re planning each month. If you’ve attended one of our events in the past, please feel free to leave feedback through our Event Feedback form!

TRYING TO JOIN an event?

For all the events that use Zoom, we use the same link. To join an event, click below.

our programming

Several of our events are consistent from semester-to-semester: 

DISCO CO(LAB)s- year-long, inter-institutional collaborative research projects

BCaT Learns- weekly lunchtime program with varying focus areas that includes guided discussions, colloquiums, book clubs, tools workshops and guest speaker presentations. 

BCaT Writes- provides a weekly supportive space for writing and body-doubling, as well as drop-in support for undergraduate students seeking writing support.

BCaT Applies- a monthly workshop with varying topics aimed at supporting your career development, from CV and job market material reviews, to discussions of alt-academic career paths, to workshopping conference materials! 

BCaT Eats- our monthly event where we prioritise rest and community-building - we invite you to join us for dinner, movies, and games. 

Other programming may include colloquium and/or panel talks, and author visits at BCaT Book Club meetings. 

BCaT Calendar

Want to learn more about an event? Click the calendar to see details about each event for that day!

Feb
20

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

View Event →
Feb
26

BCaT Workshop: Archives and the Black Tradition

Archives and the Black Tradition explores the significance of personal and digital archives in re/defining historical legacies, promoting narrative control and agency, and expanding conventional notions of memory, place, and truth.

keondra bills freemyn is a writer and archivist in the Black tradition whose work and research centers contemporary cultural production. She is Co-Executive Director of Black Lunch Table, a radical digital archiving project focused on Black visual artists and is founder of Black Women Writers Project, a digital archival initiative highlighting the contributions of Black women and gender-expansive writers to the literary canon. She is an alumna of Columbia University (MPA), Fordham University (BS), and University of Maryland (MLIS).

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

View Event →
Feb
26

BCaT Eats: Technoskepticism Launch

Join us for the launch of the book Technoskepticism! From Munchausen by Tiktok, to wellness apps, to online communities, to AI, the DISCO Network explores the possibilities that technoskepticism can create. Technoskepticism explores possibility and refusal in new technologies, highlighting how people of color and disabled individuals have long navigated between acceptance and rejection. Technoskepticism shares their stories, revealing the opportunities skepticism can create.

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

View Event →
Feb
27

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

View Event →
Feb
19

BCaT Applies: AoIR Application Clinic

The BCaT Lab is hosting an Associate of Internet Researchers (AoIR) clinic! We are here to offer guidance on your submission materials. The theme for 2025 explores “ruptures,” encompassing alternative internet histories and theoretical perspectives often overshadowed by dominant Western ideation and big tech. Take advantage of this clinic ahead of the AoIR’s March 1st deadline!

Join us on Zoom or in Skinner 3115!

View Event →
Feb
19

BCaT Workshop: Oral Histories

In this workshop our speakers reflect on their own practices of collecting and narrativising Oral Histories, how method informs their research, and give practical guidance towards the recovery and ethical engagement of Black counter-narratives.

Paula Akpan’s historical practice and journalism interrogate themes of Blackness, queerness, community-building and our relationship with technology. Her first book, WHEN WE RULED: THE RISE AND FALL OF TWELVE AFRICAN QUEENS AND WARRIORS will be published in May 2025.

Dr. Jade Bentil’s work maps genealogies of Black women's refusal and resistance. Her forthcoming first book, REBEL CITIZEN, is an oral history project focusing on the intimate recollections and experiences of Black women of African and Caribbean descent who migrated to Britain following the Second World War.

To attend the event virtually, register here or join us in Skinner 3115!

View Event →
Feb
13

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

View Event →
Feb
6

Open Lab Hours: Writing Lab

Interested in coming to the lab to discuss research or find ways to get involved? Visit us in Skinner 3115 from 10am-3pm! We will also be hosting writing support and undergraduate drop-ins during this time.

View Event →
Dec
4

BCaT Eats

Join us for our last BCaT Eats of the semester at Skinner 3115. There will be food, community, and fun games. Make sure to RSVP for BCaT Eats here. Hope to see you there!

View Event →
Dec
4

BCaT Applies

Thinking about grad school? The BCaT Lab is here to help with the application process! This month, we will be hosting a Grad Schools Application Clinic. Come join us to learn about and receive assistance with the grad school application process in Skinner 3115 or on Zoom!

View Event →
Nov
20

BCAT Field Trip

This month, we’re hosting a field trip on November 20th to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, we will have lunch in the Sweet Home Cafe and receive a guided tour of the Power of Place exhibition. This tour will help provide insights into the ways we can explore developing our Black Homeplaces Co(Lab)!

We will be meeting outside the building at noon in the Reading Grove. Make sure to RSVP for the field trip here to secure a ticket while supplies last! Bookclub members outside of the DMV wishing to participate should find a similar exhibition, take a picture of a relevant piece of art and explain its connection to the Black Homeplace in our next bookclub meeting!

View Event →
Nov
6

BCAT Eats

BCaT Eats is our monthly event where we prioritise rest and community-building. Join us in Skinner 3115 for our three-part docuseries screening on Black Twitter and enjoy some pizza!

If you plan on attending, please RSVP here so we can get a headcount for food. We hope to see you there!

View Event →
Oct
16

BCaT Applies

Come join us for BCaT Applies at Skinner 3115 or on Zoom for a discussion on Alt-Academia! If you are a near/recent grad student considering a career in academia, join us in talking with a panel of academia experts.

View Event →