[Uwhistory] African Studies talk

[Lynn M. Thomas]

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Please join us for the first in a four part lecture series, "Africa in  
the
World: Rethinking Area Studies."

Handel K. Wright, Professor of Cultural Studies & Education at the  
University of
Tennessee will be talking on:

"Whose Diaspora Is This, Anyway? Continental Africans Trying On and  
Troubling
the Diaspora."

March 31
3:30 p.m.
Communications 226

In general, the disciplines tend to take up continental Africa(ns) as  
given and
fixed (while making room for nuance and change).  Ironically, even
interdisciplinary work on the diaspora tends, through benign neglect, to
relegate continental Africa(ns) to originary place, moment and identity  
as it
focuses on representing the complexity, fluidity and multiplicity of  
diasporic
African identity.  This presentation utilizes a cultural studies  
approach in general
and a number of recent texts in particular to illustrate that the  
continental
African emigre can be considered an "other" diasporic identity that  
troubles
the continental/diasporic identity binary as well as unidirectional  
notions of
"continuity."  The presentation gestures towards the possibility of a  
cultural
studies (as opposed to individual discipline or even interdisciplinary)  
approach
to Africana studies; to a politicized Africana studies "without  
guarantees."

For more information on the speakers' series, please visit the Simpson  
Center
for the Humanities website:

http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/projects_conferences_africa0405.htm