In January 2013, Dr. Kalenda Eaton traveled to Varanasi, India, as a featured speaker during an International Symposium on African American Identity at Banaras Hindu University. Eaton was invited by her colleague Dr. Gerise Herndon (Nebraska Wesleyan) and the Faculty of Social Sciences. During her visit she gave a lecture titled “‘Concentration on things behind…as though there were no future to be had’ or African American literary history as road map for a ‘Post-racial’ America?” in which she positioned African American literary history (spanning the late 19th and 20th centuries) as a blueprint for necessary literary activism of the 21st century. While in Varanasi, Eaton had the opportunity to meet with several esteemed colleagues and was pictured in Hindustan Times newspaper in an article on the symposium.