UMD Mellon Diaspora Network Department of African American Studies
Volume 1, Issue 1 Summer 2020
In this Issue: About the Project
Meet our Seminar Participants
Upcoming Events
Meet the Project Team
Where to Find Us
“Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.” — John Henrik Clarke
About the Project Welcome to the Mellon Black/Diaspora Seminar project. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this interdisciplanary was created to answer the question: How are nationality and the specifics of distinctly diverse ethnicities and gender formations reshaping the framing identity among first and second generation African immigrants and their relationships with native-U.S. born African American populations in the opening decades of the 21st century? Distinguished senior and distinguished scholars at all levels of their careers and graduate students from multi-disciplinary humanities fields in African, African American, Africana, and African Diaspora Studies will participate in a cross-disciplinary research
seminar, in which they will conduct an
exchange new definitions, meanings,
exchange of ideas and perspectives
and representations of African/African
about the intersection of identity and
diaspora identity.
cultural expression. Their insights will articulate and reflect innovative thinking about the lives, cultural expressions, and identity formations among native-born African Americans and first- and second-generation migrants from African diaspora communities as they mirror both particular and overlapping identities and cultural experiences in the U.S. In light of the tremendous growth of African immigrant populations across the U.S., seminar participants will be asked to explore and
Meet the Seminar Participants Akosua Adomako Ampofo
Professor of Gender Studies & African Studies University of Ghana
Carole Boyce Davies Professor of English & Africana Studies Cornell University
Farrah Jasmine Griffin
Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies Columbia University
Mary Osirim Herman Bennett
Professor of History The City University of New York
Msia Kibona Clark
Provost, Professor of Sociology Bryn Mawr College
Associate Professor of African Studies Howard University
Sharon Harley
Associate Professor of African American Studies
University of Maryland, College Park
Nemata Blyden
Associate Professor of History George Washington University
Lynn Bolles
Professor of Women’s Studies University of Maryland, College Park
Cheryl Finley
Associate Professor of Art History
George Washington University
Martin Summers
Professor of History Boston University
Michael Gomez
Silver Professor, History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies New York University
Deborah Willis
Professor, Chair Department of Photography and Imaging New York University
Upcoming Events
Meet the Project Team Sharon Harley Principal Investigator
October 1-2, 2020 Seminar Meeting 1
Erica Puentes Administrative Assistant
University of Maryland, College Park
Public Event: “Conversations and Visual Representations of Race/Ethnic/Gender Identity” David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African American and the African Diaspora
February 25-26, 2021 Seminar Meeting 2 New York University
Sarah Scriven Programming Coordinator
Public Event: “Conversations and Visual Representations of Race/Ethnic/Gender Identity” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
June 2021 Seminar Meeting 3 University of Ghana
Public Event: Dialogues with Ghanaian Faculty, Students and the Public University of Ghana
September 2021
Adreanna Nattiel Digital Humanities Coordinator
Seminar Meeting 4
University of Maryland/Howard
Public Event: UMD/Smithsonian Diaspora Conference National Museum of African American History and Culture
UMD Mellon Diaspora Network
University of Maryland Taliaferro Hall 1119 Taliaferro Hall, Rm 1117 4280 Chapel Lane College Park, MD 20742 (301) 405 -1158 Facebook & Twitter coming soon!