Keynote Speaker

Dr. Sylviane Diouf is an award-winning historian specializing in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, slavery, and migrations. She is the author most recently of Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America(Oxford)which received awards from the American Historical Association, the Alabama Historical Association, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her book Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (NYU) was named Outstanding Academic Book. She is the editor of Fighting the Slave Trade: West African Strategies (Ohio) and the co-editor of In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience (National Geographic). A recipient of the Dr. Betty Shabazz Achievement Award, the Warith Deen Mohammed Award, the Pen and Brush Achievement Award, and the Rosa Parks Award, Dr. Diouf has appeared in several documentaries. She is a Curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.