We have reached capacity for December 8th. However, if you are interested in coming to the opening panel and reception on December 7th, you can still sign up below.

This two-day symposium will feature plenaries and research panels featuring cutting-edge research in African Disaspora Studies. It will interrogate the state of Black Studies, while also highlighting the unique contribution Berkeley has made to thinking critically about blackness in complex and global ways. The event is organized to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the doctoral program in African Diaspora Studies, and as such, it will include presentations from leading alumni from the doctoral program, as well as current and former faculty, and current graduate panels students.

BLACK CURRENTS PROGRAM

Black Currents Symposium: 20th Anniversary of the Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley

December 7, 2017 – Banatao Auditorium

4:00-4:15 – Welcome by Dr. Brandi Wilkins Catanese and Dean Carla Hesse

4:30-5:45 - Opening Keynote Panel
Dr. Percy Hintzen
Dr. Margaret Wilkerson
Dr. Charles Henry
Moderator: Dr. Ula Taylor

5:45-7:00 – Reception

December 8, 2017 –Barrows Hall*

8:15-8:45 – Breakfast (Albert Johnson Conference Room - 650 Barrows Hall )

9:00 – 9:15– Symposium Introduction: Dr. Stephen Small (SS Matrix - 820 Barrows Hall)

9:15-10:30 – Alumni Roundtable: Life Before and After the Ph.D (SS Matrix - 820 Barrows Hall)
Dr. Kelley Deetz
Dr. Robeson Taj Frazier
Dr. Justin Gomer
Dr. Asia Leeds
Dr. Carter Mathes
Moderator: Lindsey Herbert

10:45-12:15 – Concurrent Panels – Session #1

Blackness and Urban Inequality
Location: 650 Barrows Hall

Dr. Justin Gomer – “Keep Away From Me, Mr. Welfare Man’: Claudine and The Emergence of Colorblindness”

Dr. Shaun Ossei-Owusu  - “The Decade of Epidemics- Gangs, Crack, Disease and Urban Hospitals in the 1980s”

Dr. Erin Winkler – “Racial Inequity, Watered-Down Diversity, and African American Children and Youth in the City: Why Making Our Research Count for the Community (Even When It Doesn’t Count for Tenure) Matters”

Discussant: Kenly Brown Reconstructing the Archive
Location: 820 Barrows Hall

Dr. Kelley Deetz - A Recipe, A Letter, A Skull, and A Collar: Seeing the Unseen in the Archives
 
Dr. Marisa Fuentes – “Enslaved Women and the Ethical Practice of History”

Dr. Asia Leeds – “Between Nation and Diaspora: Black Women’s Activism and the Archive in Central America”


Discussant: Kathryn B. Golden


12:15-1:15 – Lunch

1:15-2:45 – Concurrent Panels – Session #2

Rethinking Culture, Rethinking Circulation
Location: 650 Barrows Hall

Dr. Carter Mathes – “The Acoustics of Unfreedom”

Dr. Petra Rivera-Rideau – “Blackness, Transnationalism, and Afrolatinidad in the Reggaetón Era”

Dr. Robeson Taj Frazier – “Ciphas at the Altar of the Father”

Dr. Elisa Joy White  - “Objectionable Proximities: Considering the African Diaspora and Blackness in Europe”

Discussant: Zachary Manditch-Prottas  Queering Blackness, Gendering Blackness
Location: 820 Barrows Hall

Dr. Marlon Bailey – '"Whose body is this?' Black Sexual Praxis and the Future of Black Studies."  

Dr. Jasmine Johnson – “Choreographing Return”

Dr. Matt Richardson – “Literature, Film and Black Sexual Politics”

Discussant: Kia Middleton

2:45-4:15 – Closing Keynote Panel: Future Directions in African Diaspora Studies
Location: 820 Barrows hall

Dr. Marlon Bailey
Dr. Marisa Fuentes
Dr. Jasmine Johnson
Dr. Leigh Raiford
Dr. Ula Taylor
Moderator: Dr. Tianna S. Paschel

4:15-4:30 – Concluding Remarks – Dr. Darieck Scott

* The panels on December 8th will take place in Barrows Hall, located on the southern edge of the UC Berkeley campus. Panels will take place both in the Alberto Johnson Conference Room (650 Barrows) and at Social Science Matrix at 820 Barrows. The elevator to the 8th floor, where the SS Matrix is located, is on the east end of the building. Alternatively, you can take an elevator to the seventh floor and come up the stairs.

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