October 27-29

The Commons & Hall Center Conference Hall 

Featuring keynote speaker Biodun Jeyifo 

Professor of African and African American Studies and Comparative Literature, Harvard University   

"Inside and Outside the Whale: Take Two"

October 28, 7:30 p.m., Hall Center Conference Hall  

The awarding of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Nigerian dramatist and social activist, Wole Soyinka, marked the first time the award had gone to an African writer. Since then, three other African writers have been the recipients of the award. This symposium will explore the roles of African writers and their works in light of this paradigmatic award. It will examine the state, focus, and direction of African literatures, both the verbal and performing arts, within a global context and from new critical perspectives. It will also investigate the response of a new generation of African writers to issues raised by transnationalism, migration, and local identities engendered by globalization.  

The keynote speaker, Biodun Jeyifo, is Professor of African and African American Studies and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is a renowned literary critic and theorist. Plenary speakers are drawn from multiple generations of African writers, theatre practitioners, and critics, including  Ghirmagi Negash, Rotimi Martins, Nozipo Maraire, Catherine McKinley, Niyi Coker, Anthonia Kalu, Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi, and Femi Euba. For more information, please contact Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka at omofola@ku.edu.

For a complete schedule of events and locations, please click here.   

Idéa Cafe at the Commons

Jake Wagner 

Associate Professor of Urban Planning & Design, UMKC  

"Disasters as Design Moment: Does Urban Design Make Sense After Disasters?" 

November 9, 12:30 p.m. 

The Commons, Spooner Hall

 

What can we learn about cities and urban design after a disaster? Professor Wagner will address some of the challenges of rebuilding cities in the wake of major disasters through examples including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the recovery of Joplin, MO after the May 2011 Tornado.

The Idea Café is intended to elicit energetic exchanges between attendees in response to the speaker's introduction. Lunch is provided, and RSVP is required by October 31. Limit 40 guests. RSVP to Emily Ryan at thecommons@ku.edu.  

The Tuttle Lecture

Darlene Clark Hine 

Board of Trustees Professor of African-American Studies and Professor of History, Northwestern University 

"Rehearsal for Freedom: Black Professional Women's Health Care Activism Before Brown" 

October 26, 4:30 p.m. 

Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union 

*Co-sponsored by the Department of American Studies, the Department of History, the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of the Provost, and the Hall Center

Darlene Clark Hine is the Board of Trustees Professor of African-American Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University and is a leading historian of the African American experience and a pioneering scholar in African American women's history. The Department of American Studies and friends and family of Bill Tuttle established the annual Tuttle Lecture in 2008 to honor Bill for his 40 years of academic excellence in research and teaching, as well as his service to the university, the Lawrence community, and the nation. The Tuttle Lecture focuses on Bill's primary teaching, research, and civic concerns: African American history and culture and recent American society and politics.

Roberta Johnson, Professor Emerita  

"Major Concepts in Spanish Feminist Theory" 

October 24, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Hall Center Conference Hall

 Roberta Johnson, Professor Emerita in Spanish and Portuguese at KU, is currently completing a monograph, Major Concepts in Spanish Feminist Theory.   In her Gender/Latin American Seminar presentation, she will present from this work in progress, discussing some of the major Spanish feminist writers of the twentieth century and how their works have impacted current notions of feminism in Spain.   Johnson received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Davis and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She taught at K-State and the Claremont Colleges in California before joining the faculty at the University of Kansas in 1990. She has been a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Valladolid in Spain, an NEH Fellow at Duke University and has received research grants from the Graves Foundation, the NEH, and the Guggenheim Foundation.    

Open to faculty and graduate students.  

Ned O'Gorman, Communications, University of Illinois, & Kevin Hamilton, New Media, University of Illinois
"Locating the Nuclear Sovereign" 

October 27, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Hall Center Seminar Room

 Ned O'Gorman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He works at the intersections of history, rhetorical theory, and political theory. Ned's book, Spirits of the Cold War: Contesting Worldviews in the Classical Age of American Security Strategy  (Michigan State UP, 2011) bridges theoretical and historical approaches to U.S. Cold War security strategy by arguing for the vital role of habitual forms of national expression in the purportedly cold, rational realm of strategic debate and decision making.      

Kevin Hamilton is an artist and researcher with the University of Illinois, where he serves as Associate Professor and Chair of New Media in the School of Art and Design. His work has included interactive artworks for gallery and public settings, a symposium series about walking, and scholarship on such subjects as art pedagogy, interface history, public monuments, creativity, and collaboration. Kevin's international speaking record includes presentations for the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, the International Society for Electronic Arts symposium, Newcastle's Culture Lab, and Glowlab's PsyGeoConflux.  

Open to faculty and graduate students. 

Patricia Foxen

The National Council of La Raza, Washington, D.C.
"Providence Revisited: Transnational Maya in the Era of Mass Deportation" 

October 28, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Hall Center Seminar Room

Co-sponsored by the Center of Latin American Studies

Dr. Patricia Foxen received her PhD in Medical Anthropology from McGill University.  She performed research on K'iche' Maya migrants from Guatemala to Providence, RI, about which she published the book In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities (2007). She has also performed research on the integration of Latino migrants in the United States and the health and well-being of immigrant and refugee families. She currently works as an applied anthropologist at The National Council of LaRaza in Washington, D.C., where her duties include development and implementation of NCLR's agenda for policy-oriented research, development and oversight of research particularly on Latino children and youth and the topic of discrimination.  

Open to faculty and graduate students.