The African American Studies Program is very pleased to announce that we have been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to run two summer workshops for K-12 teachers on African Americans in Massachusetts. For more information or to apply, please visit the workshop website.
Jan. 17, 1pm
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration
Jan. 27, 6pm
African American Studies Program Film Series Screening: “Cabin in the Sky” Film screening and discussion of “Cabin in the Sky” (1943) with Dr. Mary Anne Boelcskevy, Senior Lecturer in African American Studies at Boston University
Jan. 31, 5pm
“Media, Racism, and New Perspectives in Brazil,” A Lecture by Professor Fernando Conceição, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil.
Feb. 1, 3pm
Summer School on Black Europe Information Session-Cancelled due to weather
Dr. Dienke Hondius, Associate Professor of History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, teaches in the summer school and will be coming to Boston University on February 1 to answer questions about the program. For more information about the Summer School, visit the application website: http://www.ninsee.nl/Summerschool-1.
Feb. 8, 7pm
Black Masculinity in the Media
The current media offers many competing visions of what Black masculinity can and does look like. In a speech given in Chicago on Father’s Day in 2008, Barack Obama spoke about the need for Black men to be involved and active members of their families, calling on them to “tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we live glory to achievement, self respect, and hard work.” In the twenty-first century, rising leaders like Obama are offering a new way of thinking about Black masculinity and its role in Black families. At the same time, mainstream media continues to put forth an image of African American manhood that often competes with Obama’s vision.
The panel discussion on Black Masculinity in the Media will address these competing visions and raise questions about what is possible for images of Black men moving forward. African American Studies and UMOJA have invited students, as well as a number of notable figures in this field to participate in the discussion including Debra Jaramillo, Asst. Professor of Film and Television at the BU College of Communications, Natalie Hopkinson, Associate Editor of The Root and co-author of Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity, C.P. Gause, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, will offer a social science perspective, based on his extensive research into psychosocial behavior and motivation among young minority students, particularly Black males and fathers, and the implications for educational environments.
Feb. 15, 3:30pm
Summer School on Black Europe Information Session
Dr. Allison Blakely, George and Joyce Wein Professor of African American Studies and History, will answer questions about the program which will take place in Amsterdam this summer. Funding opportunities are available for undergraduates and graduate students.
For more information about the Summer School, visit the application website: http://www.ninsee.nl/Summerschool-1.
Feb. 15, 4pm
“Nina Rodrigues and Fausta, or Some Problems of Spirit Possession and Political Subjectivity in Fin-de-siècle Salvador da Bahia,” A Lecture by Dr. Dylon Robbins, Boston University Assistant Professor of Spanish. Please note this lecture was rescheduled from February 1, 2011.
Dr. Robbins will examine the work of the Bahian medical criminologist Raimundo Nina Rodrigues and his case study of a young Afro-Brazilian woman named Fausta in the context of the foundation of the Brazilian Republic in the late nineteenth century.
Feb. 22, 10am-6:30pm
Genetics & Genealogy: Medicine, Identity, and the African American Community Symposium
To register visit: http:// www.bu.edu/miaac/
In this day-long symposium, participants will examine the impact and meaning of new genetic technologies on African American identities, communities, and ethnoracial politics more broadly. In particular, speakers will explore the science and sociality of ancestry testing and health risk assessments, discussing how these technologies intersect with pre-existing understandings about human diversity and health disparities as well as how they give rise to new understandings and controversies.
Do the new technologies provide methods of health assessment that bypass the pitfalls of medical racial profiling, allowing for a more personalized medicine? Are they to be celebrated as a way to fill in the historical chasm left by the Middle Passage, providing African Americans with a definitive connection to their African origins? Or do the new genetic technologies buttress beliefs in inherently distinct races by offering patients a definitive connection between DNA and health outcomes, thereby re-instituting biological determinism? Are they to be criticized for selling consumers a clear-cut link between DNA and ethnic affiliation, without disclosing the limitations of ancestry testing?
The symposium brings together leading scientists and scholars, many of whom were featured in the PBS documentary African American Lives produced by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, to explore and debate these questions and more. The symposium targets students, scholars, ethicists, health care professionals, community leaders, and individuals interested in the ways that new genetic technologies shape interpretations of human diversity and health disparities. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate actively in several Q&A discussions throughout the day including a lively closing panel.
Feb. 23, 4pm
Summer School on Black Europe Information Session II
Dr. Allison Blakely, George and Joyce Wein Professor of African American Studies and History, will answer questions about the program which will take place in Amsterdam this summer. Funding opportunities are available for undergraduates and graduate students.
For more information about the Summer School, visit the application website:http://www.ninsee.nl/Summerschool-1.
Mar. 1, 4pm
“Everybody’s Protest Novel and Edmund Wilson: The Early Criticism of James Baldwin,” A Lecture by Dr. Lawrence Jackson, Emory University Professor of English and African American Studies
Mar. 22, 6pm
African American Studies Program Film Series Screening: “Pinky”
Film screening and discussion of “Pinky” (1949) with Dr. Mary Anne Boelcskevy, Senior Lecturer in African American Studies at Boston University
Mar. 24-26
Warwick Conference
Mar. 28, 4pm
“Reformist Muslim Women Leaders in Kenya,” A Lecture by Dr. Ousseina Alidou, Director of the Center for African Studies, Rutgers
Cosponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and & Sexuality Studies Program
Mar. 29, 4pm
“Cultural Asylums and the Jungles They Planted in Them: African American Males in a Post-Industrial, Post-Modern, Post-American World,” A Lecture by Dr. Walter Earl Fluker, Boston University School of Theology Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership
Mar. 30, 5pm
“A Black Panther in Tanzania,” A lecture by “Mama” Charlotte Hill O’Neal, Co-Founder of United African Alliance Community Center
Cosponsored by the African Studies Center
Apr. 5, 4pm
“Forerunner: Edward Brooke, Black Power, and White Votes,” A Lecture by Dr. Jason Sokol, Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University
Apr. 12, 4pm
“‘Blackness’ and Postcoloniality in Korean Literature and Culture,” A Lecture by Dr. Jee Hyun An, Department of English Literature, Seoul National University
Apr. 13, 4pm
“Uplifting the Race: African American Education over Three Centuries,” A Lecture by Dr. Charles Glenn, Boston University Professor of Education
Apr. 19, 5pm
“From Tuskegee to Guatemala: What do we do with the Infecting Story?” A Lecture by Dr. Susan M. Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College
Apr. 26, 3pm
“Chisholm ’72 Unbought and Unbossed,” A Lecture and Discussion by Shola Lynch, Documentary Film Producer and Director
Cosponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and & Sexuality Studies Program
For more information on the African American Studies Program, please contact Deirdre James, Program Administrator at dejames@bu.edu or 617-358-1421.