The Langston Hughes Center (formerly the Langston Hughes Resource Center, founded in 1998) is an academic research and educational center that is building upon the legacy and creative and intellectual insight of African American author, poet, playwright, folklorist and social critic, Langston Hughes. The Center coordinates, strengthens and develops teaching, research and outreach activities in African American Studies, and the study of race and culture in American society at the University of Kansas and throughout the region. The Center, therefore, acts as a hub of critical examination of black culture, history, literature, politics, and social relations. In addition, like Hughes himself, the Center has a Diasporic focus, promoting research and discussions on Africans in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. Towards these ends the Langston Hughes Center, will regularly sponsor conferences, lectures, seminars and forums on a wide variety of topics; coordinating activities with, among other groups, the Kansas African Studies Center and the Center of Latin American Studies at KU.