Diasporic Counterpoint: Africans, Asians and the Americas
A Conference Sponsored by the Center for African American History
and the Program in Asian American Studies
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 U.S.A.
April 20-21, 2007
Co-Sponsors:
The Department of African American Studies
The Office of the President
The Harris Lecture Fund
The Department of History
The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
The Program of African Studies
Mission Statement:
“Diasporic Counterpoint: Africans, Asians and the Americas” offers comparative and transnational analyses of the formations and intersections of African and Asian diasporas with a focus on political, cultural, social, and racial cross-fertilizations. Foregrounding recent advancements in Diaspora Studies, this two-day symposium illuminates the rich comparative and interdisciplinary scholarship on Africans and Asians across the globe and throughout the Americas. Specialists in African American Studies, Asian American Studies, History, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, and Sociology explore issues and topics essential to understanding the complexities of diasporic intersections, internationalism, and transnationalism — concepts embodied, negotiated, and contested by members of these communities. Nationally and internationally renowned scholars representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives will make this two-day conference, April 20-21, 2007, at Northwestern University an intellectually provocative experience.
In a series of four panels, each followed by ample time for questions and audience engagement, we concentrate on the following specific topics: “Working Race”, “Making and Mediating Diasporas”, “Mixing Musics”, “Political Counterpoints”. Prominent scholars Gary Okihiro, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, and Rhoda Reddock, Head and Professor, Centre for Gender and Development Studies University of West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad will deliver the opening and closing keynote addresses. The conference promises to open a space for sustained intellectual inquiry into the new developments in comparative diasporic studies. The new scholarship in this area compels us to reconsider how we envision and understand “Blackness” and “Asianess” in the Americas. The papers from this symposium will be considered for publication as an anthology.
Conveners:
Darlene Clark Hine, Northwestern University
Ji-Yeon Yuh, Northwestern University
Opening Plenary at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum
Gary Y. Okihiro, Columbia University
Closing Plenary at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum
Rhoda Reddock, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
Conference Committee:
Carolyn Chen, Sociology and Asian American Studies, Northwestern University
John Cheng, Asian American Studies, Northwestern University
Darlene Clark Hine, African American Studies and History, Northwestern University
John Marquez, African American Studies, Northwestern University
Nitasha Tamar Sharma, African American Studies and Asian American Studies , Northwestern University
Butch Ware, History and African American Studies, Northwestern University
Ji-Yeon Yuh, History and Asian American Studies, Northwestern University
Conference Staff:
Kulsum Jaffer, Center for African American History, Northwestern University
Gregory Jue, Program in Asian American Studies, Northwestern University
Web Designer:
Marshanda Smith, Michigan State University
Comparative Black History, Doctoral Student
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