“Afropean: An Examination of Black People and Blackness in Europe”

Afropean will convene scholars from around the country and Europe who offer both a breadth of research and expertise on the topic of Black people and Blackness in Europe since colonization and geographic variety including Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Sweden and the former Soviet Union. Scholars will partake in public panel discussions that will place them in conversation, an intellectual workshop about the state of the field, an evening dinner and keynote, a graduate and undergraduate student workshop focused on researching in European archives, and visits to select classes.

Participants:

Silke Hackenesch, University of Cologne
Jamele Watkins, University of Minnesota
Kimberly St. Julian Varnon, Morehouse University
Ethelene Whitmire, UW Madison
Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Loyola Chicago
Eliana Vagalau, Loyola Chicago
Michael McEachrane, Carnegie Mellon University,
Laila Amine, UW–Madison
Rosemarie Peña, Rutgers University-Camden
Julia Roos, Indiana University-Bloomington
Michelle Moyd, Michigan State
Marissa Moorman, UW–Madison

Schedule:

Monday, October 5th

9:30am Breakfast

10:00am Welcome from Christy Clark-Pujara (Chair, African American Studies Department)

10:15-11:30am Panel One, Moderated by Michelle Moyd (Michigan State University)

Cristina Lombardi-Diop, “Between Sea and Continent: Black Italy as a Comparative Case for Black Europe”
Michael McEachrane, “Decolonial Blackness and Europe”
Eliana Vagalau, “Black Paris Today”
Jamele Watkins, “Black Germans Pasts and Futures”

12:00-1:00pm Lunch

“What to the Black American is Afropean?” Keynote with Dr. Kimberly St. Julian Varnon
Note: A Room of One’s Own bookseller will be on-site for panelist and moderator book purchases.

1:15-2:30 Panel Two, Moderated by Marissa Moorman (UW–Madison)

Kimberely St. Julian Varnon, “A Soviet Grammar of Blackness: Soviet Media Archetypes of African Americans and Africans”
Silke Hackenesch, “Negotiating Race and Responsibility: The Adoption of Black German Children to the United States after WWII”
Ethelene Whitmire, “Searching for Utopia: African Americans in 20th Century Denmark”
Laila Amine, “Elsewheres of Black Freedom: African Americans’ Natal Alienation and the Problem of Home”

Tuesday, October 6th

9:00-11:00am Breakfast/Graduate Student Workshop: Researching and Recovering Race in European records

For more information about the seminar and the participants, please visit: https://mosseprogram.wisc.edu/event/afropean/