African American & African Studies at Work in the World

Welcome: Dean Meredith Woo, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Buckner W. Clay Professor of Politics

9:30-9:45 a.m.

Opening Remarks: Deborah E. McDowell, Director, Carter G. Woodson Institute, Alice Griffin Professor of English

Panel One: African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia

Moderator: Karen Waters, Quality Communication Council

Claudrena Harold, University of Virginia

"On the Wings of Atlanta": The Struggle for African American Studies at the University of Virgina, 1969-1995

Paul Gaston, Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia
The Formation of the Woodson Institute

Adom Getachew, Yale University (College 2009)
A Detour in the (Recent) History of Student Activism at the Carter G. Woodson Institute: Reflections on Audacious Faith II

Stephanie de Wolfe, (College 2010)
African Studies at UVA: Progress and Possibilities

Respondent: Angela Davis, University of Virginia

Performance by Victor Cabas, Hampden-Sydney College

Panel Two: People Out of Place: Race Space and Social Movements

Moderator: Herbert T. Lovelace, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 2010-2012)

Risa Goluboff, University of Virginia
Social Movements, the Supreme Court, and  the Downfall of Vagrancy Laws

Scot French, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 1994-1996)
That World is Gone: Race and Displacement in a Southern Town
(Film Screening and Discussion)

Craig Barton, University of Virginia
Constructing Memory: Landscapes of Race and Invisibility

Respondent:  Bryan Wagner, University of California-Berkeley (Woodson Fellow 2001–2004)

Panel Three: Navigating the Mediasphere

Moderator: Sandy Alexandre, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Woodson Fellow 2003-2005)

Alisha Gaines, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 2009-2011)
Cosmopolitan Girlhood: Post-Race and Globalization on America’s Next Top Model

Jonathan Walton, Harvard Divinity School
Black Gods of the Mediasphere

Nikol Alexander-Floyd, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
“But I Voted for Obama”: Melodrama and Media in the Era of the "Post"

Deva Woodly, New School for Social Research and Lang College (College 2001)
New Competencies in Democratic Communication? Blogs, Agenda Setting and Political Participation

Respondent: Andrea Press, University of Virginia

Panel Four: Interrogating the African Diaspora

Moderator: Ellen Contini-Morava, University of Virginia

Herman Bennett, The Graduate Center-City University of New York
Articulations: Nationalist Narratives , the African Diaspora and true Formation of Afro-Latin America

Deborah Thomas, University of Pennsylvania
Deviant Black Bodies: Violence in Transnational Discourses of Cultural Dysfunction

Yarimar Bonilla, University of Virginia
Non-Sovereign Futures? Caribbean Politics in the wake of Disenchantment

Performance: UVA African Music and Dance Ensemble

Respondent: Michelle Kisliuk, University of Virginia

Keynote Addres: Paul Zeleza, Loyola Marymount University

The Ties That Bind: From African and African American Studies to Africana Studies

9:15-9:30 a.m.

Performance: Hermine Pinson, College of William and Mary

Panel One: Respecting Intimacies: The Claims and Kinds of Kinship

Moderator: Anna Lim (Woodson Fellow 2008-2010)

Waldo Johnson, University of Chicago
Male Roles within the African American Family and Kinship Network: Historical Perspectives, Contemporary Challenges and Future Opportunities

Parker Shipton, Boston University (Woodson Fellow 1989-1990)
The Kin and the Kind: A Reflection on Intimacy, Animality, and Civility in Africa

Juan Battle, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Social Justice and Sexuality Initiative: The Makings of a National Survey

Todne Chipumuro, University of Virginia
Of Evangelicals and Eddie Long: The Sacred and Scandalous Dimensions of Spiritual Kinship

Respondent: Susan McKinnon, University of Virginia

Panel Two: When Work Disappears

Moderator: Frederick Knight, Colorado State University (Woodson Fellow 2001-2002)

William Fletcher, Labor, Justice, and Solidarity Activist
Black Workers, Labor Unions and the Question of the Cities  

Rhonda Sharpe, Bennett College
Disappearing Acts: Trends in Tenure Track Positions

Mildred Robinson, University of Virginia
The Current Economic Crisis: The Legacy of Race (and Gendered) Employment

Respondent: Sharon Harley (University of Maryland)

Panel Three: Religion, Ritual and the Sacred

Moderator: Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 1991-1993)

Vicki Brennan University of Vermont (Woodson Fellow 2004-2006)
The Politics of “Praise and Worship” in Contemporary Nigeria

Katherine Clay-Bassard, Virginia Commonwealth University

Signs and Wonders: Sacred Texts, Sacred Selves in African American Literature

Bettye Collier-Thomas, Temple University
“Make Us a Power”: Religious Masculinity and Black Feminist Resistance

Z.S. Strother, Columbia University (Woodson Fellow 1990-1992)
African Iconoclasts: the Massa Movement of Côte d’Ivoire, 1946-56

Respondent: Brandi Hughes, University of Michigan (Woodson Fellow 2007-2009)

Panel Four: Bio-Politics: Race, Health and the Body

Moderator: Dennis Tyler, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 2010-2012)

Jenifer Barclay, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 2009-2011)
Invalid History: Disability, Race and Slavery in Antebellum America

J.T. Roane, Columbia University (College 2008)
The “Obesity Epidemic”: Fleshing out Black Studies

Samuel Roberts, Columbia University (College 1995)

Historical Thinking, Mixed Methodologies, and the "Heroin Epidemic" of 1960-1973

Respondent: Gertrude Fraser, University of Virginia (Woodson Fellow 1985)

Dedication of Catherine Foster Site
South Lawn

Musical Selection: Dei Ashilei Nikoi

Remarks
Associate Dean Karen Parshall
Scot French
Ishraga Eltahir

Reading
Brenda Marie Osbey, Poet Laureate of New Orleans

Keynote Address
Minor Hall Auditorium

Dorothy Roberts, Northwestern University
Race, Gender, and Biopolitics in the Genomic Age

9:15-9:30 a.m.

Remarks

Deborah E. McDowell, Director, Carter G. Woodson Institute, Alice Griffin Professor of English

Panel One: Documenting the Civil Rights Movement: New Research Opportunities

Moderator: Kelly E. Miller, University of Virginia

Laura Thomson, Amistad Research Center Tulane University
Black Arts and Civil Rights: New Research Opportunities at the Amistad Research Center

Cheryl Oestreicher, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History
Eateries, Educators, and Executives: Documenting Civil Rights Intellectual History

Sarah Quigley, Emory University Archives
Unsung and Unseen: Documenting the Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement

Petrina Jackson, University of Virginia Library
From SNCC to Pop Icon: Exploring Student Use of the Julian Bond Papers

Film Shorts by Kevin Everson, University of Virginia

Keynote Address: Carole Boyce Davies, Cornell University

Revisiting the Radical Black Intellectual Tradition in Africana Studies

Panel Discussion: Texts and Methodologies of Africana Studies

Tera Hunter, Princeton University (Woodson Fellow 1987-1989)

The Making of a People’s History: Writing a Narrative History of African Americans, Promises and Challenges

Roquinaldo Ferreira, University of Virginia
A Comparative Approach to the Rise of African Studies in Brazil and the United States (1960s to the Present)

Jemima Pierre, Vanderbilt University (Woodson Fellow 2002-2004)

Writing Ghana, Imagining Africa, and Interrogating Diaspora

Lawrie Balfour, University of Virginia

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Reconstruction of Democratic Theory

Roundtable Discussion: The Future of Africana Studies

Berhanu Abegaz, William and Mary

Sarajanee Davis, University of Virginia, President, Black Student Alliance

Rita Edozie, Michigan State University

Deborah E. McDowell, University of Virginia

Greg Thomas, Syracuse University

Francille Russan Wilson, University of Southern California