Black Ecologies Symposium
Thursday, Nov 21, 2024
Michigan Union-Wolverine Room
8:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m.

Black ecology is the study of Black people and their environment. Please join us as eminent scholars from across the country will discuss various aspects of this important field of study. This symposium is part of a year-long exploration of Black Ecology within the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.

Welcome
Bénédicte Boisseron
Professor & Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS)
Affiliate Faculty, Romance Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature

Panel I
REFUSE
Moderator: Amber Bal, University of Michigan (Romance Languages and Literatures)

Brigitte Fielder, University of Wisconsin
“Black Birds; Black Flight”

Marisa Solomon, Barnard College
“Tending to Black Trash”

Meg Sweeney, University of Michigan
"‘Dead White Man's Clothes' and the Women of Kantamanto Market"

Che Gossett, University of Pennsylvania
“The Dark Sublime”


Panel II
THE ELEMENTS
Moderator: Jessica Walker, University of Michigan (DAAS & American Culture)

Joshua Bennett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Veils: Black Life and The Art of Opacity”

Aliyah Khan, University of Michigan
"Hurricane Music and Caribbean Climate Change"

C Riley Snorton, University of Chicago
“Mud: Swamp Tales, Trans Ghosts, and Nonbinary Praxis”

JT Roane, Rutgers University
“Transforming ‘Mississippi-America’: Land and Ecology in June Jordan's Work”


8:30 a.m.- 8:45 a.m. : Welcome
8:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. : Panel I
10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. : Break
10:30 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. : Panel 2
12:00 p.m.- 12:05 p.m. : Concluding remarks