The University will be closed December 18, 2025 to January 4, 2026. If you need assistance during that time, please call 1-855-OWU-1842 and leave a detailed voicemail along with your contact information. One of our colleagues will respond to your call as soon as possible.
If you would like to make a 2025 gift, please make your gift before midnight on December 31.
Thank you for making the 2025 Melvin Van Peebles Symposium a success! We'll see you in 2027!
The University welcomed attendees March 27-29 to the 2025 symposium, themed "Disruption!! Signal Fires, Reckoning, and Jubilee Through Black Art." The event was highlighted by a conversation with actress and activist Erika Alexander, along with theater performances, film screenings, art exhibitions, and academic discussions.
In Conversation with Erika AlexanderErika Alexander is an actress, trailblazing activist, entrepreneur, creator, producer, director, and one of the country's boldest, most daring, and powerful voices. Hear her story during the 2025 symposium!
Read more about Erika Alexander
Best known as a trailblazing Black filmmaker, Melvin Van Peebles was a twentieth-century Renaissance man. The 1953 Ohio Wesleyan graduate transcended the boundaries of race and gender as an innovator in film, theater, music, art, literature, and business.