Afro-American Studies Conference
9:00-10:45
“Black Abolitionists”
Commentator/Moderator: John Bracey, University of Massachusetts
African-American Abolitionism as a Human Rights Discourse
Timothy Shortell, Brooklyn College CUNY
Pursuing Emancipation/Rejecting American Promises: Sarah Parker Redmond Revisited
Alfreda S. James, Stony Brook University
Echoes of Toussaint: The Heroic Embodiment of the Haitian Revolution and the Legitimation of Militant Abolitionism in the United States
Jordan Lewis Reed, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Martin Delany’s Quest: Re-considering the Rise of Pan-Africanism, Human Rights, and Modernity within the African American Emigration Movement, 1850-1860
Ousmane Power-Greene, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
9:00-10:45
“The Strange Meaning of Being Black”
Commentator: James Smethurst, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Moderator: Jacqueline Jones, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The New Negro: An Ontological Critique
Jerry Phillips, University of Connecticut
Placing Sartre’s “Look” in Nella Larsen’s “Quicksand”
Denise Karachuk Feikema, University of Connecticut
The Etiology of Hate: Toni Morrison’s “Paradise”
Aaron L. Bremyer, University of Connecticut
Of Might and Men: Milton’s Infernal Heroism and Frederick Douglass’ Male Self
Reginald A. Wilburn, University of Connecticut
11:00-12:45
“Building a Race: Positive Identity Construction and Racial Politics”
Moderator/Commentator: Ernest Allen, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Blacks on the Border: An African American Community in British North America
Harvey Amani Whitfield, University of Vermont
Sweepin’ Spirits: The Archeology of Enslaved Domestic Spaces
Whitney L. Battle, Cornell University
Marking the Black Difference: What’s Race Got to Do With It?
Devonya N. Havis, Boston College
The Impact of Gaines (1938), Miller (1952) and Brown (1954) on the Education of Deaf African Americans
Marieta Joyner, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
11:00-12:45
“African-American Art and Political Consciousness”
Commentator: Nelson Stevens, University of Massachusetts Amherst
(retired emeritus), Afri-COBRA
“It Looks Like Vegas Out Here”: The History of the Crossroads Theatre Company
Thomas Edge, University of Massachusetts
Encodings: Southern Rituals and Memories in the Art of Romare Bearden, John Biggers, and Beverly Buchanan
Jeffreen M. Hayes, Howard University
Teaching Contemporary Issues with African-American Music
Travis Paul W., Brandeis University
Indexical Desire: The Poetics of the Personal in Renee Stout’s Art
Meghan Maguire Dahn, University of Connecticut
12:45-1:45
Lunch - Bring your own brown lunch for this informal break
1:45-3:30
Plenary Session
Roundtable Discussion
Jeanne F. Theoharis, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Brian Purnell, Fordham University
John Bracey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Ernest Allen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dayo Gore, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
3:45-5:30
“Arts, Activism, and Expatriates: Identity in the African Diaspora”
Commentator: Audience
Moderator: Allia Matta, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Battle Ships, Atom Bombs, and Lynch Ropes”: Postwar Progressive Women’s Fight for Peace and Freedom
Jacqueline Castledine, Rutgers University
African-American Expatriate Writers: The Politics of Survival
Stephen Soitas, Independent Scholar
Non-Native Sons: Black Expatriates in France During the Algerian War
David Slavin, Westfield State College
“Going Big Over There”: Black American Music, Gender, and Race Across the Atlantic in the 1920s
Rachel Gillett, Northeastern University