The late Terry Kershaw, Chair of African and African American Stud­ies at Virginia Tech and editor for the In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal for Africana Studies, attended the con­ven­ing as a special in­vited guest. Although he was not asked to submit a po­­si­tion paper for discussion, his contributions to the con­ver­sa­tions were invaluable. Given Kershaw’s participation in the con­ven­ing and his contributions to the field of Black Studies, he has been ask­ed to provide reflections on the significance of the con­vening and the publications of the individual position pa­pers and portions of the discussion transcripts.