Exploring arts and culture focus of Africana Studies Symposium

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Discussions and performances that explore the African cultural legacies in the Americas will be on the program for the 15th annual Africana Studies Symposium, being held April 5-7.

The symposium, titled “Performing Africana Arts and Culture: Repression, Resistance and Renewal,” will feature 12 scholarly presentations, four workshops, a film and panel discussions.

Umi Vaughan, an associate professor of Africana Studies at California State University Monterey Bay, will be the symposium’s keynote speaker. An artist and anthropologist, Vaughan explores dance, creates photographs and publishes about the African Diaspora culture. He holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. His talk is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 6, in Cone University Center, McKnight Hall. A reception will follow.

During the day April 6, there will be a panel discussion “Africana Music in Urban Spaces,” followed by various workshops, including “Afro Haitian Dance and Social Justice in the Classroom” and “Afro Brazilian Dance.”

The panel discussions “Slavery and Burial Practices” and “Performing Gender and Resistance” are on the symposium agenda for Friday, April 7, along with the screening and discussion of the film “Celebrating the Water Goddesses.”

“This year’s Africana Studies Symposium will explore the African cultural legacies in the Americas; the intersections of history, performativity and resilience in Africana cultures; and the intellectual-discursive project of body/kinetic movement in Afro-Brazilian, Vodou and Orisa dances,” said Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The symposium is jointly presented by the Department of Africana Studies, Department of Art and Art History and Department of Dance and sponsored by the Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund, College of Arts + Architecture and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  

 All on-campus programs of the symposium are free and open to the University community and the public.