AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER
CORNELL UNIVERSITY

SAVE THE DATE!

LOOKING BACK/MOVING FORWARD:
THE FUTURE OF AFRICANA/BLACK STUDIES

A CONFERENCE IN CELEBRATION
OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF
AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER

APRIL 15-17, 2010
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM
AFRICANA CENTER

In celebration of its 40th Anniversary, Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University will organize a major conference entitled Looking Back/Moving Forward: The Future of Africana/Black Studies. The conference, which will be held April 15–17, 2010, will revisit and critically assess the origin and development of the field of Africana/Black Studies, as well as focus on new theoretical imperatives in the field and its future prospects in the context of global African Diaspora and transnational studies. The conference will invite several major scholars in the field from outside Cornell University to engage with Cornell-based scholars in a dialogue about the field and its future prospects.

CRITICAL SYNOPSIS:
The field of Africana/Black Studies has undergone major changes and transformations within the last three decades, which were largely due to feminist, postmodernist, postcolonial studies and other critical interventions. A new generation of African and African American feminist scholars has produced a body of work critical of patriarchy and its hegemonic impact on the field. They also have been critical of western and white feminist scholarship that has either been patronizing or shown disregard for Africana/Black women issues and concerns. As a result of such interventions, a diverse array of gendered perspectives have evolved within the field of Africana studies and greatly enriched its discourses in social sciences and the humanities. The same could be said about new imperatives, such as postcolonial, postmodernist, gay and lesbian or queer perspectives, which have confronted homophobia within the Black communities and led to the development of a new body of literature and fields of inquiry in Africana studies. These developments were influenced by transformations in related areas such as cultural studies and critical race theory in which Africana/Black studies have played a vital role in shaping their evolution in the first place. Other developments are related to explorations of new frontiers in African Diaspora studies. These include lesser explored aspects of the African Diaspora in the Spanish speaking Caribbean (such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico), Latin America including Brazil, in addition to the Black British experience and recent African migrations and diasporas in Europe and the Middle East. The above-mentioned developments will certainly play a part in reconfiguring and revisiting the field and expanding its discourse –and by extensions the curricula on both graduate and undergraduate levels– to include such new perspectives and frontiers in Africana studies. Our Center is increasingly taking up as well as shaping the new paradigms of thought in the field and is innovating in ways that will ensure its place at the forefront for years to come.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM:

DAY 1: THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2009

2:00 – 2:30 PM: OPENING REMARKS

2:30 – 5:00 PM: SESSION I:
“WORKING ON A BUILDING” AND “BUILDING A HOME” IN THE ACADEMY: REFLECTIONS ON MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND INSTITUTION BUILDING IN THE FIRST FORTY YEARS OF AFRICANA/BLACK STUDIES: ROUNDTABLE

5:00–6:30 PM: RECEPTION AND FILM SCREENING/DISCUSSION:

DAY 2: FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010

9:00 AM–11:30 AM: SESSION II:
AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND FEMINIST SCHOLARSHIP: A ROUNDTABLE:

12:00 –1:15 PM: KEYNOTE & LUNCHEON

1:30 – 3:30 PM: SESSION III:
AFRICANA THOUGHT: A PANEL

4:00– 6:00 PM: SESSION IV:
VISUALIZING BLACKNESS: AFRICANA STUDIES AND VISUAL CULTURE

7:30 – 9:30: DINNER/CELEBRATION/RECOGNITION:

DAY 3: SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 2010

9:00 AM–11:00 PM: SESSION V:
THE NEW AFRICANA STUDIES: MOVING FORWARD: ROUNDTABLE

12:00-1:15pm KEYNOTE AND LUNCHEON

1:30 – 3:30PM: SESSION VI:
HOMECOMING: AFRICANA ALMUNI ON THE ACADEMY AND LIFE AFTER CORNELL: ROUNDTABLE

4:00 – 6:00 PM: SESSION VII:
THE SCHOLAR AS A PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL: AFRICANA STUDIES AND ACTIVISM

6:00–6:30 CONCLUDING REMARKS AND ACKNOWLEDEGMENT