{"id":6731,"date":"2026-04-08T15:05:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/history\/?p=6731"},"modified":"2026-04-09T16:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:08:36","slug":"nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/history\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Connolly Delivers\u00a06th\u00a0Annual\u00a0McGaffey Lecture on Family History and Capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 2,\u00a0we had the privilege of hosting the 6th annual McGaffey Lecture with speaker Nathan\u00a0Connolly of Johns Hopkins University.\u00a0The lecture,\u00a0\u201cLetters from the Ancestors: Family\u00a0History and our Capitalist Future.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Draws from four generations of family archives, Connolly explores how\u00a0Caribbean\u00a0family histories reveal the lived\u00a0realities\u00a0of racialized\u00a0capitalism,\u00a0economic precarity and structural inequality.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of the lecture was Connolly\u2019s great-grandfather, William \u201cSmiley\u201d Connolly, a multilingual Caribbean intellectual. writer and activist whose life unfolded across the British Empire and the United States in the early twentieth century. Although widely respected in community and intellectual circle, Smiley Connolly never held a formal academic position, noting how many Black scholars and thinkers existed historically outside traditional institutions. By tracing Smiley\u2019s life through scattered documents, letters, and family stories, Connolly demonstrates how personal archives can help to explain larger histories of colonialism, migration and economic struggle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connolly described the process of reconstructing these histories as working through what he calls a \u201cdemented archive\u201d\u00a0a mix of official documents, fragmented letters, oral histories and family memories shaped by illness,\u00a0migration\u00a0and generational storytelling. These materials, he argued, reveal how families navigate systems that often deny\u00a0them\u00a0stability or recognition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Connolly explained during the lecture, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we need is not men who will make the world safe for democracy, but men who will make the world unsafe for autocracy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lecture highlighted several key themes, including how family archives can help us understand the development of racial capitalism, the ways working-class families navigated racism and financial instability\u00a0and how family narrative,\u00a0particularly those surrounding women,\u00a0can obscure the structural causes of economic hardship. Connolly challenged audiences to rethink how inherited stories shape our understanding of responsibility,\u00a0success\u00a0and failure within capitalist systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLetters from the Ancestors\u201d<\/em>\u00a0invited attendees to reflect on how personal histories intersect with larger political and economic structures. By connecting his family\u2019s experiences in the Caribbean and the United States to contemporary inequalities, Connolly encouraged listeners to consider how we engage with institutions today and how the stories we tell about our past influence the futures we imagine.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 2,\u00a0we had the privilege of hosting the 6th annual McGaffey Lecture with speaker Nathan\u00a0Connolly of Johns Hopkins University.\u00a0The lecture,\u00a0\u201cLetters from the Ancestors: Family\u00a0History and our Capitalist Future.\u201d\u00a0Draws from four generations of family archives, Connolly explores how\u00a0Caribbean\u00a0family histories reveal …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40141,"featured_media":6735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHistory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/history\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nathan Connolly Delivers\u00a06th\u00a0Annual\u00a0McGaffey Lecture on Family History and Capitalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On April 2,\u00a0we had the privilege of hosting the 6th annual McGaffey Lecture with speaker Nathan\u00a0Connolly of Johns Hopkins University.\u00a0The lecture,\u00a0\u201cLetters from the Ancestors: Family\u00a0History and our Capitalist Future.\u201d\u00a0Draws from four generations of family archives, Connolly explores how\u00a0Caribbean\u00a0family histories reveal …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/history\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-08T20:05:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T21:08:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/212\/2026\/04\/NBD-Connolly-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Grace Handshoe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Grace Handshoe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Leah Grace Handshoe\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6cfbc9589864384dedf93261d9a5dd11\"},\"headline\":\"Nathan Connolly Delivers\u00a06th\u00a0Annual\u00a0McGaffey Lecture on Family History and Capitalism\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-08T20:05:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-09T21:08:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/212\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/NBD-Connolly-scaled.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/history\\\/nathan-connolly-delivers-6th-annual-mcgaffey-lecture-on-family-history-and-capitalism\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nathan Connolly Delivers\u00a06th\u00a0Annual\u00a0McGaffey Lecture on Family History and Capitalism - 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