CRITICAL CONVERSATION SERIES: AN EVENING WITH NNEDI OKORAFOR
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N 2021 THE JUDY GENSHAFT HONORS COLLEGE was proud to present its Critical Conversations Series with a focus on social justice. Featured events included faculty panels, student presentations, and guest speakers on important global and local issues related to the topic. Honors students strive to be “Global Citizens,” and this series gave them the opportunity to participate in conversations about challenging topics and learn how to bring communities together through respectful discussion. Faculty, staff, and students from all three USF campuses participated in several themed events, including: • “Artivism,” a virtual session of panelists discussing art and activism highlighted by a display of students’ original works; • A “Research for Social Change Roundtable” bringing together faculty from Communication, History, Women and Gender Studies, and Interdisciplinary Global Studies; • A student organization social action fair; and • A “Women in Comics” event featuring Stephanie Phillips, writer for DC Comics. The keynote event was “An Evening with Nnedi Okorafor,” award-winning “Naijamerican” (her preferred term for Nigerian-American) author and screenwriter. The Honors College collaborated with the USF Humanities Institute to arrange a virtual talk with Dr. Okorafor. Honors students Khushi Doshi, Chizobam Ugboaja, Osose Emuan, Sophie Roth-Knigin, and Jesutomiwa Julianah Titus Adewunmi hosted the event, welcoming Dr. Okorafor and guests from all over the world. The students wrote and posed interview questions focused on her publications about her identity as a writer, as dual citizen, and as a woman author in the male-dominated science fiction field. “Okorafor’s art is exceeded only by her incredibly assertive personality,” says Chizobam Ugboaja, international pre-med Honors student and event host. “She does not mince words about the necessity to distinguish and protect the genre of African jujuism.”
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Okorafor defines African jujuism as “a subcategory of fantasy that respectfully acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative.” She is the award-winning author of numerous novels including Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon, and Remote Control. “Her creation and constant contribution to African jujuism and African futurism are inspiring,” says Ugboaja. “It was very reassuring to see her not compromise on storytelling for a majority western audience. I am still very awestruck and grateful for the conversation. She is the kind of intelligent person I hope to be.” - Meg Stowe
