one of the reasons we're so delighted to have jordan brewington with usen tonight. can we -- with us tonight. can we talk to end the system of enslavement of black people in the u.s. and elsewhere, and if we can, what does it mean to be an abolitionist today. these are the kinds of questions and conversations we hope to engage starting tonight and over the course of the academic year. in addition to professor mcdaniel, who is our lead speaker tonight, our own colleagues and former students are key interlocutors in this series starting, as you just heard, from jordan brewington who's talking to us tonight and who ann thornton just introduced. but in the spring we will also have sarah haley, our new colleague in history, and sadia hartman whose work is at the very center of this debate and scholarship. and that event will be in february 2022. and the final event will involve elizabeth hinton, a former ph.d. student in history at columbia who's now at yale history and law and who will headline the event in march and will be joined by our current colleague from the jour