Africana Studies
50th Anniversary of the Africana Studies Program
During November 1–3, 2019, the Larry A. Mamiya Memorial Conference commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Africana Studies program with a conference, “Africana Studies and the Future of Freedom.” The event featured noted scholars, current and former faculty and staff, and current and former students—including some who helped create the program 50 years ago. Read more
Friday, November 1
Villard Rm, Main Building, 2nd floor
Villard Rm, Main Building, 2nd floor
The conservative mantra of “personal responsibility,” which discouraged progressive policy intervention by the US government in the late 20th century, shows signs of dissipating with the rhetoric around reparations—while it enjoys primacy among nation-makers in the rest of the globe. Are scholars and students of Africana Studies to make anything of this disjuncture, if indeed one exists? See full description.
Moderator: Blanche Bong Cooke ’89, the Robert E. Harding Jr. Associate Professor of Law, University of Kentucky College of Law
Panelists: Quincy Mills (History), Zachariah Mampilly (Political Science), Joyce Bickerstaff P ’86 (Education), Milfred Fierce (Emeritus)
Rose Parlor, Main Building, 2nd floor
Villard Room, Main Building, 2nd floor
Saidiya Hartman (Comparative Literature-Columbia), MacArthur Genius Fellow, and author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval Moderator and Interlocutor: Mia Mask, Professor of Film, Vassar College
“Growing Wild”
Class of 1951 Reading Room, Thompson Library
Directors’ Panel: “Between Reparations and Resilience”
(Full description of the Friday afternoon panel)
Since 1989, Representative John Conyers has appealed to his colleagues in Congress annually to begin investigating the prospects of the United States instituting a reparations program that would remedy the exploitation of African slaves during the country’s antebellum period and the social persecution and discrimination that U.S. blacks have endured since the practice’s abolition. For almost 30 years, Conyers’s appeals have failed to gain traction. However, due to the persistent clamor from black intellectuals supporting the initiative—namely Randall Robinson, William Darity, and Ta-Nehisi Coates—the idea of reparations has emerged as a debate item within the Democratic Party as it seeks to nominate a presidential candidate for the 2020 election.
Beyond U.S. borders exists an equally vibrant discourse that seems to counter the local one about reparations. Eminently popular among governance theorists and state-builders is the idea of cultivating resilient societies and peoples. Resilience, a concept that, according to Jonathan Pugh, champions “self-organizing adaptivity” and “empowering subjects to make life choices that better enable them to adapt to the conditions of their lives,” aims to chasten governments seeking to institute progressive systemic change for their nations. This framework, Pugh observes, “is not fundamentally about challenging unequal socio-economic relations, but rather about creating resilient subjects.” On the surface of things, U.S. and international discoursers find themselves functioning at cross purposes.
The conservative mantra of “personal responsibility,” which discouraged progressive policy intervention by the United States government in the late 20th century, shows signs of dissipating with the rhetoric around reparations—while it enjoys primacy among nation-makers in the rest of the globe. Are scholars and students of Africana Studies to make anything of this disjuncture, if indeed one exists? Should we view these developments from a temporal lens? Is the United States or African Americans making progressive political headway in ways that other nations and other facets of the African Diaspora remain unable to achieve? Are reparations a sign of U.S. blacks’ new orientation toward the idea of liberalism? What factors have seemingly allowed adaptability to become a necessary idea abroad?
Saturday, November 2
Taylor Hall 102
Taylor Hall 102
The panelists will discuss intellectual and political legacies that point to the project and promise of freedom and its futures in Africa and the African diaspora.
Moderator: Samson Opondo, Political Science, Vassar College
Panelists: Lewis Gordon (Philosophy), Nisrim Elamin (Anthropology), Sherie Randolph (History)
Taylor Hall 102
How do words and witnessing work against the grain of structural isolation? This panel considers if and how black bodies and lives register in our experience. What forms of representation map out routes of healing, survival, and care?
Moderator: Jasmine Syedullah, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies, Vassar College
Panelists: Jemma Decristo ’08 (Sound Studies), Glenda Carpio ’91 (English), Monica Ndounou (Theater)
(for alumnae/i, panelists, and faculty)
2nd floor, Gordon Commons (formerly ACDC)
Taylor Hall 102
This panel reflects on the futures of freedom in light of new struggles and new political projects. Panelists address issues ranging from anti-blackness to critiques of U.S. empire.
Moderator: Tyrone Simpson, Department of English, Vassar College
Panelists: Silvio Torres-Salliant (English), Keisha Khan Perry (Anthropology), Lester Spence (Political Science)
Villard Rm, Main Building, 2nd floor
Aminatta Forna (Novelist)
Introduction: Ismail Rashid, History, Vassar College
Alumnae House
Sunday, November 3
Zamir Birnbach Trio (Class of 2020)
Alumnae House