Black Diaspora Research Seminar Newsletter Summer 2020

UMD Mellon Diaspora Network Department of African American Studies

Volume 1, Issue 1 Summer 2020

In this Issue: About the Project

Meet our Seminar Participants

Upcoming Events

Meet the Project Team

Where to Find Us

“Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.” ­— John Henrik Clarke

About the Project Welcome to the Mellon Black/Diaspora Seminar project. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this interdisciplanary was created to answer the question: How are nationality and the specifics of distinctly diverse ethnicities and gender formations reshaping the framing identity among first and second generation African immigrants and their relationships with native-U.S. born African American populations in the opening decades of the 21st century?

Distinguished senior and distinguished scholars at all levels of their careers and graduate students from multi-disciplinary humanities fields in African, African American, Africana, and African Diaspora Studies will participate in a cross-disciplinary research

seminar, in which they will conduct an

exchange new definitions, meanings,

exchange of ideas and perspectives

and representations of African/African

about the intersection of identity and

diaspora identity.

cultural expression. Their insights will articulate and reflect innovative thinking about the lives, cultural expressions, and identity formations among native-born African Americans and first- and second-generation migrants from African diaspora communities as they mirror both particular and overlapping identities and cultural experiences in the U.S. In light of the tremendous growth of African immigrant populations across the U.S., seminar participants will be asked to explore and

Meet the Seminar Participants Akosua Adomako Ampofo

Professor of Gender Studies & African Studies University of Ghana

Carole Boyce Davies Professor of English & Africana Studies Cornell University

Farrah Jasmine Griffin

Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies Columbia University

Mary Osirim Herman Bennett

Professor of History The City University of New York

Msia Kibona Clark

Provost, Professor of Sociology Bryn Mawr College

Associate Professor of African Studies Howard University

Sharon Harley

Associate Professor of African American Studies

University of Maryland, College Park

Nemata Blyden

Associate Professor of History George Washington University

Lynn Bolles

Professor of Women’s Studies University of Maryland, College Park

Cheryl Finley

Associate Professor of Art History

George Washington University

Martin Summers

Professor of History Boston University

Michael Gomez

Silver Professor, History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies New York University

Deborah Willis

Professor, Chair Department of Photography and Imaging New York University

Upcoming Events

Meet the Project Team Sharon Harley Principal Investigator

October 1-2, 2020 Seminar Meeting 1

Erica Puentes Administrative Assistant

University of Maryland, College Park

Public Event: “Conversations and Visual Representations of Race/Ethnic/Gender Identity” David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African American and the African Diaspora

February 25-26, 2021 Seminar Meeting 2 New York University

Sarah Scriven Programming Coordinator

Public Event: “Conversations and Visual Representations of Race/Ethnic/Gender Identity” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

June 2021 Seminar Meeting 3 University of Ghana

Public Event: Dialogues with Ghanaian Faculty, Students and the Public University of Ghana

September 2021

Adreanna Nattiel Digital Humanities Coordinator

Seminar Meeting 4

University of Maryland/Howard

Public Event: UMD/Smithsonian Diaspora Conference National Museum of African American History and Culture

UMD Mellon Diaspora Network

University of Maryland Taliaferro Hall 1119 Taliaferro Hall, Rm 1117 4280 Chapel Lane College Park, MD 20742 (301) 405 -1158 Facebook & Twitter coming soon!