Naming the Nameless: Addressing Archival Silences

The History Department had the honor of welcoming one of Duke’s very own alum, Dr. Jennifer Morgan – Silver Professor and Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis & History at New York University, and recipient of a 2024 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship Grant – as a guest speaker for the “Atlantic Worlds Workshop” on Monday, September 15, 2025. This workshop, which was co-facilitated by Dr. Balakrishnan and Dr. Leroy, invited students and faculty across all disciplines to engage in stimulating discussions related to Morgan’s ongoing and extensive research, which focuses on comparative slavery and the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality in the early Black Atlantic. 

Guests and scholars filled every seat in Classroom Building 229 to participate in the discussion over Morgan’s work in progress, “The Value of an Unflinching Gaze: Questions from a Woman Whose Name We Cannot Know.” In this piece, Morgan confronts the difficulties, frustrations, silences, and racial hierarchies found among and within artwork and archives. By examining specific objects depicted in a late sixteenth century portrait of an enslaved Black woman, the collective discussion encouraged everyone in the room to reflect on the weight and significance of seemingly trivial details – such as an ornate clock and a glass-beaded necklace – in relation to the broader realities of slavery. As we analyzed this damaged portrait of a woman whose name was not “important enough” to record in history, workshop participants emphasized using methodologies, such as “listening to images,”^[1] to reiterate significant historical contexts.