Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. DAAS Africa Workshop (February 25, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73072 73072-18138330@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Haven Hall
Organized By: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Ethiopia in Theory, Theory as Memoir, Elleni Centime Zeleke

In the Invention of Africa, Valentine Mudimbe argues that when the social scientist asks about the local in Africa she inevitably ends up situating Africa as a sign of something other than itself. For Mudimbe, the social sciences are a paradigmatic cultural model that leaves the African social scientist with limited choices. Alternatively, Mudimbe advises that if we document the invention of this cultural model we can demonstrate the limits of social studies in Africa as a mode of knowledge production.
In my talk, I try to show how the commitment to science limited the capacity of the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s and 1970s to describe what Mudimbe calls the ‘chose du texte’ of living and breathing Africans. By highlighting a link between the writings of the Ethiopian student movement and the social conditions of knowledge production I then try to connect the history of the west in Africa to the limitations in the writings of the student movement. This has provided me with a path towards a ‘recit pour soi’ – an account of myself as a path towards personal survival.
Centime Zeleke received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought at York University (Toronto) in 2016. Her research interests include student movements in the Horn of Africa, 20th-century state formation in Africa, as well as comparative social and political theory.

Elleni’s forthcoming book is titled Ethiopia In Theory: Revolution and Knowledge Production,1964-2016. The hardcover will be published by the Historical-Materialism Book Series at Brill in the fall of 2019. A paperback version will also be published by Haymarket Books in 2020. Ethiopia In Theory asks: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenisation of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context; and, importantly, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally?

Elleni’s work has also appeared in the Journal of NorthEast African Studies and Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters.

Elleni teaches courses on the Horn of Africa, African Political Thought, Critical Theory, and Histories of Capitalism.

Zeleke teaches courses on African Political Thought, Critical Theory, and Histories of Capitalism.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:58:28 -0500 2020-02-25T16:00:00-05:00 2020-02-25T18:00:00-05:00 Haven Hall Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Lecture / Discussion Haven Hall
Freedom Writings: Black Abolitionists and the Struggle Against "Race Hatred" in Brazil - 1870-1890 (March 9, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/72781 72781-18077119@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, March 9, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Department of History

How do you think about the experiences of freedom among black people in Brazil before the end of slavery in 1888? Interested in this question, this lecture presents a reflection on the experiences of free and literate black men, who were active in the press, as well as in the political-cultural landscape of the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ferreira de Menezes, Luiz Gama, Machado de Assis, José do Patrocinio, Ignacio de Araújo Lima, Arthur Carlos and Theophilo Dias de Castro are the central subjects in this narrative, along with so many other “free men of color” who sought in different ways to conquer and maintain their spaces in the public debate about the Brazil’s paths, while relying on the sustainability of their own individual projects. Against the grain of “ race hatred” daily practices, they not only contributed to debates on daily, abolitionist, black and literary newspapers, but also led the creation of resistance, confrontation and dialogue tools and mechanisms.

Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto is an adjunct professor in the Department of History at the University of Brasília. She received her PhD in History from the State University of Campinas, her MA in History from the University of Brasília, and her BA in Journalism from The University Center of Brasília. Pinto has developed research articulating knowledge in the areas of History, Communication, Literature and Education, with an emphasis on political-cultural performance of black thinkers, black press, abolitionism and experiences of black freedom and citizenship in the slavery period and post-abolition in Brazil and elsewhere in the African Diaspora.

This lecture will take place on Monday, March 9, at 4:00pm in 1014 Tisch Hall.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 12 Feb 2020 10:44:25 -0500 2020-03-09T16:00:00-04:00 2020-03-09T18:00:00-04:00 Tisch Hall Department of History Lecture / Discussion Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto
Order and the Underground: Governing the Goldfields of Madagascar (March 11, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/73591 73591-18267638@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Haven Hall
Organized By: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Brian Ikaika Klein is a doctoral candidate in environmental science, policy, and management at the University of California, Berkeley. His research integrates the study of social and ecological conditions and processes to understand resource access and governance in extractive frontier settings across the Global South. Prevailing narratives among policymakers and in popular media consistently portray these spaces as unregulated and chaotic.
Klein challenges these representations by documenting and analyzing the complex governance arrangements that order activities, manage conflict, and determine livelihoods on the extractive frontier. He presents ethnographic and historical evidence from Madagascar to elucidate the emergence, evolution, and endurance of governance institutions in gold mining communities on the island, as well as to interrogate the global, national, and local dynamics by which these institutions are shaped.
At the center of his work is a commitment to producing policy-relevant research informed by interdisciplinary political-ecological analysis interested in achieving more equitable and sustainable development outcomes for smallholder resource extractors and rural communities–in Madagascar, and across sub-Saharan Africa.
Klein’s research has won support from the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, and UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society (among other divisions on campus). His agenda for future research comprises extending this analysis to build a broader comparative project on frontier governance; examining the consequences of Chinese state-corporate investments and interventions in Africa’s extractive resource sectors for local institutions and livelihoods; and investigating the ways in which the growth of industries related to climate change mitigation is generating new globally-networked and locally-embedded mineral economies. He is also collaborating with U4/USAID/WWF as an expert consultant on natural resource governance and corruption in Madagascar.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 05 Mar 2020 10:40:45 -0500 2020-03-11T16:00:00-04:00 2020-03-11T18:00:00-04:00 Haven Hall Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Lecture / Discussion Haven Hall
CANCELED FellowSpeak: "E pluribus unum: Out of many voices, one language" (March 24, 2020 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/69996 69996-17491341@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 1:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Institute for the Humanities

In this talk, Baptista explores how in a multilingual setting, the languages spoken by speakers with different first languages coalesce to give rise to creole languages. She specifically seeks to draw correspondences between linguistic features in the source languages and those of the resulting creoles while examining the processes that give rise to the observable features.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:03:21 -0400 2020-03-24T13:00:00-04:00 2020-03-24T14:00:00-04:00 202 S. Thayer Institute for the Humanities Lecture / Discussion Cape Verde islands: Santo Antão
19 Historical Black Figures: “Celebrating Black Joy on JuneTeenth” (June 19, 2020 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/74992 74992-19128258@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, June 19, 2020 9:00am
Location:
Organized By: Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA

In honor of Juneteenth, The Office of Multi-Ethnic Students Affairs, Trotter Multicultural Center and The Department Of Afro-American and African Studies have joined together in an effort to recognize and pay tribute to 19 historical Black figures and symbolically commemorate the date of Juneteenth. Every hour beginning at 9:00am we will be celebrating #Blackjoy on our social media pages throughout the day by posting images and short bios of the selected individuals from a curated list gathered by MESA, Trotter and the DAAS Staff. Nineteen different folks who were civil rights leaders, freedom rights fighters, abolitionists and activists etc., will be acknowledged and celebrated publicly as we pay homage to those who supported and contributed to freedom, equal rights, and justice etc., for all black people from all different decades throughout history. We encourage university administration, faculty, and staff to repost, share or join in on this day as we celebrate and pay tribute to a small sample of our African American freedom fighters. Please feel free to reach out with any questions about participating if interested.

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Other Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:04:10 -0400 2020-06-19T09:00:00-04:00 2020-06-19T18:00:00-04:00 Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA Other Juneteenth Tribute
Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste (October 5, 2020 5:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77774 77774-19919781@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, October 5, 2020 5:30pm
Location: 1027 E. Huron Building
Organized By: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Registration Required: myumi.ch/O4P30

Join members of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) community as they explore the meanings and implications of Wilkerson's work.

Moderator
Earl Lewis
Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy; Director, Center for Social Solutions

Panelists
Aliyah Khan
Associate Professor of English and
Afroamerican and African Studies

Karyn Lacy
Associate Professor of Sociology

Magdalena Zaborowska
Professor of American Culture and
Afroamerican and African Studies

Damani Partridge
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies

Renée Pitter
DAAS Alum, Research Program Manager for the Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, U-M School of Nursing

This live, virtual conversation will occur as a community engagement opportunity following the Penny Stamps Speakers Series Event Ken Burns & Isabel Wilkerson: In Conversation on Friday, October 2 at 8:00 p.m. More information: pennystampsevents.org.

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Lecture / Discussion Sat, 26 Sep 2020 18:03:09 -0400 2020-10-05T17:30:00-04:00 2020-10-05T19:00:00-04:00 1027 E. Huron Building Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Lecture / Discussion
Performing the Moment, Performing the Movement (October 13, 2020 6:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/77479 77479-19875774@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 13, 2020 6:30pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for World Performance Studies

Registration required: http://myumi.ch/xmX0z

In this session, Cardona Otero will depart from his most recent performance art piece, Taxonomía of a Spicy Espécimen, to engage in a conversation about his work in the arts and in education. In Cardona’s words: “I’m a work in progress. As well, more and more I am understanding my performative art and pedagogy as works in progress. I am affected by this pandemic racism, this antiblackness, this sexism, and this state of white supremacy; and this infection affects what and how I craft and enact.”

Javier Cardona Otero is a performing artist, critical educator, and facilitator of art experiences as education. His artistic scholarship, which has been presented throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States, seeks to critically investigate sociocultural capitals particularly regarded to issues of race, gender, and the environment. His work is interdisciplinary and intersectional, focusing on art-making as research and embodied artwork as pedagogy. Currently, Javier is a Curriculum and Instruction PhD student in the Arts Education Program at Indiana University-Bloomington.

In this new virtual series, Center for World Performance Studies invites performers and scholars from diverse disciplines to reflect on how performance is being used to respond to the political, social, health and environmental crises that we face at this moment. Each guest will give a 30 minute presentation, and then engage in 30 minutes of Q&A. Sessions will take place over Zoom and require advance registration. You can read about the panelists, register for these events, find recommended reading and resources and/or request recordings of past events at https://lsa.umich.edu/world-performance.

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Center for World Performance Studies, at 734-936-2777. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the University to arrange.

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Livestream / Virtual Mon, 21 Sep 2020 07:24:50 -0400 2020-10-13T18:30:00-04:00 2020-10-13T19:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Center for World Performance Studies Livestream / Virtual Javier Otero
A "Common Spectacle" of the Race: The Visual Politics of Founding in the Age of Garveyism (October 29, 2020 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/75583 75583-19542895@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 29, 2020 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies

Addressing a crowded Liberty Hall full of members of the New York Division in the summer of 1920, Marcus Garvey declared, “We are a new people, born out of a new day and new circumstance. We are born out of the bloody war of 1914-1918.” This essay is concerned with the constitution of a new people, attending in particular to the role of images, performance, and practices in the project of political founding. Focusing on the 1920 and 1921 convention, I argue that for the United Negro Improvement Association, political founding was a vehicle through which participants came to understand themselves as constituting the figure of Universal Negro—a figure represented through the convention as a transnational and empowered political subject. Political founding was on this view a process of transforming one’s self-perception, of cognizing oneself as a member of a transnational people politically capable of transforming the prevailing conditions of racial domination.

Professor Getachew will present a short introduction to her pre-circulated paper; this will be followed by brief comments by Professor Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof (University of Michigan) and audience questions.

***NOTE: The link to the pre-circulated paper will be supplied in the Zoom registration confirmation email.***

Adom Getachew is Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (PUP, 2019).

Free and open to the public. This is a remote event and will take place online via Zoom. Please register in advance here: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_prwS5vb6R2ORRvW9taPevQ

This event is part of the Thursday Series of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 26 Oct 2020 10:17:06 -0400 2020-10-29T16:00:00-04:00 2020-10-29T17:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Lecture / Discussion Adom Getachew
Performing the Moment, Performing the Movement (November 10, 2020 6:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/78470 78470-20050324@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 6:30pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Center for World Performance Studies

Free & Open to the public
Registration required: http://myumi.ch/BoVkl

"The fire raced along the fuse line and incensed;
We rose to burn it all down."

Across the nation and the globe, we all-knowing and all-conquering human beings find ourselves - for lack of a better way to phrase it - in a corner. In the corner, on a universally ordered timeout like misbehaving children. We were sent from schools, workplaces, nightclubs, bars, and places to eat to our homes to wait, like Didi and Gogo in Becketts' Waiting for Godot— awaiting the arrival of Godot, who never arrives. We were sent home to wait for a safer moment in time for our collective existence, which has yet to come. Sent home to sit in timeout to reflect, reevaluate, and heal as a people and a nation. Dumbfoundedly, we watched the drafted news reports of lives lost to COVID-19 awe-struck by our leaders' indifference to the severity of the moment. Yet, with all those pots boiling over, we heard of a woman who lost her life when startled from slumber in Louisville, we watched one human-being gunned down while jogging in Georgia, and yet another human-being deliberately robbed of breath for 8m46sec in Minnesota. As if the death of all those individual lives lost to COVID-19 thus far were not enough, we return to extinguishing Black lives.

"As an Afro-Dominican American, it is interesting to exist in a world designed to erase your existence. As a brown-skinned actor, it is devastating to come to terms with my role in that process of self-erasure. I have navigated between theatrical parts that reinforce negative stereotypes and those that made me question if my performance training would be enough to overcome the cultural discrepancy between myself and the character. It is a question that most often comes up when assuming non-white character roles, which underscores my complicity in my self-erasure. When the color of one's skin and the racially discriminatory experiences lived is drowned by the loud narratives that support– despite evidence— that racism does not exist. What does one do? When one's cultural background is not enough to garner a role or bring authenticity and truth to a character of perhaps African American descent, what does the actor do? When does Black equate to one's culture, and when does it not? Why am I at first glance considered black and then by some not black enough? This presentation aims to address performing one's culture within the context of racial consciousness. Performing an Afro-Dominican-American in New York City."

Antonio Disla, aka Antonio Garcia, is an Afro-Caribbean Dominican-American theatre practitioner, born and raised in New York City. He holds an M.F.A. in Performance from The Ohio State University. Since 2012, Antonio has taught at State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, in both the Department of Theatre Arts and the Department of Communication. As a Solo Artist, he has written and devised both site-specific and staged works dealing with identity and race. Of his works, the notables to date are Nobody, a solo piece about race, and Travel, which deals with identity and destiny. As a performing company member of The Shakespeare Forum, he has lead workshops in the New York City Public Schools and co-taught Shakespeare for their Youth Forum program. Antonio has proudly worked with The Black Lady Theater, an African American community theatre company based in Brooklyn, in such productions as From the Brought of Brooklyn and Bone Soup.

In the new virtual series, PERFORMING THE MOVEMENT, PERFORMING THE MOMENT, Center for World Performance Studies invites performers and scholars from diverse disciplines to reflect on how performance is being used to respond to the political, social, health and environmental crises that we face at this moment. Each guest will give a 30 minute presentation, and then engage in 30 minutes of Q&A. Sessions will take place over Zoom and require advance registration. You can read about the panelists, register for these events, find recommended reading and resources and/or request recordings of past events at https://lsa.umich.edu/world-performance.

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Center for World Performance Studies, at 734-936-2777. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the University to arrange.

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Presentation Tue, 13 Oct 2020 09:43:08 -0400 2020-11-10T18:30:00-05:00 2020-11-10T19:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Center for World Performance Studies Presentation Disla
The History and Future of Black Studies and BLM: DAAS at 50 (November 18, 2020 7:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/79360 79360-20282623@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 7:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Join local and university community panelists PG Watkins, Omolade Adunbi, Eshe Shirley and Stephen Ward in a discussion about Black Studies and its connection to BLM as the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies commemorates its 50th anniversary and looks to what lies ahead.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 11 Nov 2020 18:37:04 -0500 2020-11-18T19:00:00-05:00 2020-11-18T21:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Lecture / Discussion Flyer
Roots, Routes, and Performative Mobilities: The Next 50 Years of Knowledge Production for Africa and its Diasporas (February 4, 2021 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/81352 81352-20887827@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 4, 2021 4:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

This lecture explores the movements of people and ideas over centuries between and among various geographies of Africa and its diasporas and the impact of such mobilities on shaping politics and identities for people of African descent. Centering the analysis on the country of Liberia and its connections to the United States over several centuries, the lecture presents the concept of “performative mobilities” to frame the larger consequences of movement. Moreover, the lecture argues for the central role that a focus on mobilities will play in the next 50 years of knowledge production in African and African Diaspora Studies more generally.

February 4, 2021 at 4 p.m.
Featuring
Yolanda Covington-Ward,
Department Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Africana Studies
Secondary Appointment, Department of Anthropology, President, Association for Africanist Anthropology (AfAA)
Executive Board Member, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), University of Pittsburgh
Yolanda Covington-Ward received her Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Zoom Register:
https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UQH7psqiQb-CP67h9En2wQ

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 27 Jan 2021 14:10:02 -0500 2021-02-04T16:00:00-05:00 2021-02-04T18:00:00-05:00 Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Lecture / Discussion