Conceived through a self-directed research residency in Paris and supported by a New School research grant, the inquiry began with a central question: how to engage the legacy of the Négritude movement, shaped by the intellectual work of Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and the Nardal sisters, within a cultural landscape that has historically minimized, distorted, or aestheticized Black intellectual life. Although foundational to global conversations on identity and liberation, Négritude’s presence in France often remains fragmented and refracted through the lingering spectacle of negrophilia.

Working in a hybrid capacity, the direction of the study emerged through field observation and archival practice. Days were spent in research institutions, public libraries, guided historical tours such as Ricki Stevenson’s Black Paris Tour, the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, and exhibitions including Senghor and the Arts at the Musée du Quai Branly. These encounters revealed how the movement’s philosophical, literary, and political contributions have been preserved, reinterpreted, or quietly omitted. The intention was to understand both the historical record and the cultural afterlife of Négritude. This included examining how the Nardal sisters’ salons and writings informed the early intellectual and cultural currents of the movement and how their influence has often been marginalized in dominant narratives. The study considered how these contributions continue to shape Black aesthetics, diasporic identity, and modes of resistance.