This conference will bring together an international group of historians to re-examine Africa’s role in World War II and the war’s impact on African communities. Drawing on insights from several fields including spatial analysis, cultural studies, gender analysis and environmental history, the papers at this conference will illuminate the distinctive social, economic and political changes the war generated on the continent, broaden the discussion of racial policies during the war, highlight African responses as well as Africa’s centrality to the prosecution of the war.

Conference Organizers:

Judith Byfield (Cornell University)

Carolyn Brown, Rutgers University – New Brunswick

Gregory Mann, Columbia University

Ahmad Sikainga, Ohio State University - Columbus

Date: September 17 - 19, 2009

Location: Africana Studies and Research Center

Cornell University

310 Triphammer Road

Conference Hotel: Ramada Inn

2310 N. Triphammer Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Phone: 607-257-3100

Fax: 607-257-7924

Reservations must be made by September 1, 2009

Sponsors:

Africana Studies and Research Center

Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies

Institute for the Social Science

John Henrik Clarke Library

Cornell Society for the Humanities

De Bary Mellon Interdisciplinary Writing Group 

Cornell Cinema  

Department of Sociology 

Columbia University - Institute of African Studies

Co-sponsors:

Carl Becker House

Department of Anthropology   

Department of Government

European Studies   

Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies   

Institute for Comparative Modernities