Conference Schedule

Thursday April 26

Friday April 27

9:30-11:00am

Session I- ORH 250

Slavery and Colonialization Across the Atlantic World

1. Michael Modarelli, Walsh University, "Frederick Douglass and the Anglo-Saxon Argument."
2. Dr. Chris Williams, Kent State University, "Sierra Leone Krios/Americo-Liberians."
3. Alex Lovit, Charles F. Kettering Foundation, "The American Colonization Society and the Construction of African American Identity."
4. Maximo G. Martinez, West Virginia University, "Public Policy and Africana Studies."

Commentator: Denise A. Harrison, Kent State University

9:30-11:00am

Session II- ORH 214

Black Studies in Transnational Context

1. Bincy Abdul Samad, Kent State University, "Hegemony and Alienation in Native Son" A Postcolonial Reading."
2. Babacar Faya, Bowling Green University, "Political and Economic Agency in Postcolonial Theory."
3. Arnissa Hopkins, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools, "Redefining African American Identity."
4. Leroy Davis, Emory University, "'Under the Shadow of Good Health': Mariamne Samad, George Allman and the Saga of a Black Transnational Family in the African Diaspora: The Harlem Years."

Commentator: Idris Kabir Syed, Kent State University

11:00am-12:15pm

Session III- ORH 214

Critical Feminism and Undiminished Differences: Gender, Race, Class, Sexualities...

1. Walter Gershon, Kent State University, "Embodying Blackness: Reconceptualizing African American Girls' Ways of Being in Urban Classrooms and their Implications for STEM Education."
2. Suzanne Holt, Kent State University, "Gender Essentialism and its Shadows."
3. Nicole Rousseau, Kent State University, "Historical Womanist Theory."

Commentator: Christopher Williams, Kent State University

11:00am-12:15pm

Session IV- ORH 215

Culture and Politics in the African Diaspora

1. Bobby Hopkins, Warrensville Heights School System, "Music and African American Culture."
2. Kevin McMullen, Kent State University, "Roles of the Trickster Character in African American Folktales."
3. Jamila Okantah, Kent State University, "Rasta Movement and Colonization of Jamaica."
4. Dominique Zordich, Kent State University, The Contributions of Eric Williams."

Commentator: Wendy Wilson-Fall, Kent State University

1:15-2:15pm

Dr. Timothy Moerland, Dean- College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Wendy Wilson-Fall, Chair- Department of Pan-African Studies

Keynote Address

Dr. Sylviane Diouf

Digital Curator, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

"Deconstructing and Reconstructing Africans' Identities During Slavery"

2:30-4:00pm

Session V- ORH 214

Blackness in Literature and Practice

1. Dan Mills, Clayton State University, "Alpha Behn and John Locke on Slavery, Inherited Rule and Regicide."
2. Joshua M. Murray, Kent State University, "'The Wonder of the World': Claude Mc Kay's Denationalization of the Harlem Renaissance in Home to Harlem."
3. Melissa R. Pompili, Eastern Michigan University, "A Literary Cosmogram: The Influence of Western Narrative Tradition and African Oral Tradition in Michelle Cliff's Free Enterprise."
4. Daryl M. Peavy, Independent Researcher, "Artworks of Great Benin: The Pedagogy of Theft in Africana Studies."
5. Lasana Kazembe, University of Illinois at Chicago, "Spiritwork and Conjurefolk: Unpacking Nommo, Griot, and the Role of the Black Arts Movement in the Development of Africana Studies."

Commentator: M.L. Nambuo Temu, Kent State University

2:30-4:00pm

Session VI- ORH 250

Revisiting President Barack Obama in Historical, Political and Literary Context

1. Zachary R. Williams, Akron University, "What the African American Wants: African American Policy Matters and the Obama Administration."
2. Willie J. Harrell, Jr., Kent State University, "We Face an Immediate Economic Emergency that Requires Urgent Action."
3. Mwatabu Okantah, Kent State University, "Notes of Another Native Son."
4. Babacar M'baye, Kent State University, "Africa and Black Identity in Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father."
5. Bridgett A. King, Kent State University, "State Policy and Turnout."

Commentator: Walter Gershon, Kent State University

4:00-5:30pm

Session VII- ORH 250

Locating Gender

1. Christian Pinnen, University of Southern Mississippi, "Slavery, Freedom and Gender in Colonial Spanish Natchez, 1781-1799."
2. Sharon Bell, Kent State University, "'The Woman Who Went to Man's Town': A Haitian Woman Folk Heroine."
3. Suzanne Ondrus, Kent State University, "Writing as Survival in Sade Adeniran's Imagine This."
4. Sandra M. Cox, Shawnee State University, "African American Studies in Appalachia: Teaching Literature about Slavery and its Antecedents along the Mason-Dixon Line."

Commentator: Alene Barnes, Kent State University

4:00-5:30pm

Session VIII- ORH 214

Charting African Identities: From Origins to Contemporary Time

1. George Garrison, Kent State University, "How Africans Traveled in Pre-Columbian America."
2. Idris Syed, Kent State University, "Africanisms in Art: An Examination of Multi-Modal Art in the Historical and Modern Charlestown Maroon Community."
3. Julio Pino, Kent State University, "Cultural Resistance, Slavery, and the City: Afro-Muslims of Salvador, Brazil."
4. Wendy Wilson-Fall, Kent State University, "A New Pan-Africanism."

Commentator: George Garrison, Kent State University

Dr. Wendy Wilson-Fall, Chair of Department of Pan-African Studies

8:00-11:00pm

Reggae Night

Akron's Rhodes Street Rude Boys

KSU Student Center
Rathskellar