See the ICS-2025 Europe sessions on-demand.

ICS is an initiative of the NorcalMLK Foundation, sparking meaningful conversation between King & Faith scholars and global religious thinkers.

Co-founded by the NorcalMLK Foundation executive director Dr. Aaron Grizzell, Ph.D., Dr. Dwight Hopkins, Ph.D., Ph.D., the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor at the University of Chicago, Dr. Raymond Carr, Ph.D., the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and director of the Codex Charles H. Long Papers at Harvard University’s Moses Mesoamerican Archive, and Colette Rodgers-Grizzell, consulting advisor and strategist, ICS is rooted in the spirit of Dr. King—calling us not only to remember, but to interrogate and expand his legacy. Through gatherings on four continents, ICS creates powerful, localized moments of global reflection. This is where ideas cross borders, faith meets justice, and collaboration becomes a tool for transformation.

ICS is more than a lecture series—it’s a movement of ideas. Built on the foundational work of Dr. King and shaped by leading African American religious scholars, ICS creates a dynamic space for intercultural inquiry. Whether in Europe, Africa, Asia, or the Americas, ICS brings scholars together to confront pressing global issues with moral clarity and intellectual depth. These encounters spark new fields of research and foster connections across traditions, disciplines, and continents.

At the heart of the International Colloquium Series is a transformative vision: African American religious scholarship on the global stage as co-architect. ICS invites scholars into a vibrant and sustained engagement on religion, justice, and identity. These colloquia amplify the vital role of Black religious thought in addressing today’s most urgent questions—across culture, across faiths, across borders.

Through direct engagement between African American scholars and religious communities worldwide, ICS inspires deep dialogue and mutual understanding. This isn’t academic tourism—it’s grounded, contextual, and purpose-driven. ICS fosters fresh perspectives on faith, power, history, and the human condition, and offers a rare space for interdisciplinary exploration with lasting impact.

Finally, the International Colloquium Series is an invitation to serious global conversation on the sacred in public life—how religion informs resistance, resilience, and renewal. With thought leaders engaging across cultures and continents, ICS highlights the richness of African American religious insights while forging new paths of inquiry with global peers. Together, they illuminate the possibilities of shared wisdom in urgent times.

The religious experience, as a significant and acute human concern, provides a fruitful field for interdisciplinary exploration. Deep scholarly research and discussion in and about African American religious and theological expression furnishes rich and fertile ground for dialogical engagement.

Thus our goal for ICS is:

• To foster greater intellectual stimulation and engagement;
• To encourage the broadening of interdisciplinary and intercultural exploration; and
• To further the development of interdisciplinary and intercultural research and solutions to global issues.

ICS is the only U.S. program specifically engaged in bringing high-level scholars grounded in the work of Dr. King and other U.S. religious thinkers to the international community. Support for ICS promotes the global work and voice of King and our invited scholars and fosters greater dialogue with the global community in their own environments. In this way, we think the possibility of solution-building increases and it builds a portal for supporters to increase their impact in the valuable work of building global community and good will.