African Diaspora Circularities: Forging Communities, Cultures, and Politics November 4-7, 2015 Charleston, South Carolina Hosted by the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina

See:  http://www.aswadiaspora.org/

The African Diaspora is defined in great measure by the movement and circulation of African peoples, their cultures, and their ideas. African peoples in diaspora have created their own meanings and social-ideological geographies, forming new communities, dialogues and autonomous spaces within the global Black world and larger transnational communities. Whether it is the birth of Gullah culture in the Carolina Sea Islands from far-flung Atlantic colonial spaces or communities navigating the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class, African peoples have been generating circuits that constitute intertwined histories with increasing dialogue among each other.

ASWAD invites panel submissions for its 8th Biennial Conference that focuses on related themes of circulation/migration and the importance of locality/place 
in shaping the human experience of Africans and African descendants around the world. Contrary to the common misperception that forced migrations and related cultural circulations of Africans and their descendants are mostly themes of the past, the 2015 conference takes place in an age of unprecedented movement of ideas and people and still, for Africans and their descendants, circulation often occurs under circumstances of severe duress. As in the past, African descendants are creating new politics, cultures and communities within Africa and beyond that form the foundation for discourse and advocacy in human rights struggles and underlie the ongoing quest for cultural and political autonomy. ASWAD 2015 thus also seeks to generate dialogue about the inherent qualities of independent cultural production and community creation by African-descended people.

The theme of circularity invites presentations on the racial, gender, sexual, and class contours of migration and the meaning of place in the production of intellectual formulations, community formation, Pan-Africanism, and identity within Africa and its Diaspora that utilize diasporic feminist and black/ queer/diaspora frameworks. Additionally, circularities engage arenas of new technologies, media, and communication. ASWAD also encourages panels that explore circularities from scientific perspectives, highlighting such issues as the biological impacts of the global movements of African peoples, medicine and healing, and other biological and scientific research on Africa and its diaspora.

Attentive to our 2015 conference location in the South Carolina low country, the Gullah/Geechee communities and the Oyotunji (Yoruba/ Vodou) religious community in Beaufort County are examples from this region that demonstrate how specific geographies, economies, and patterns of migration have created distinctive new Black worlds and forged spaces of refuge and resistance. This region also reflects the significance of the Haitian Revolution in the process of slave resistance and therefore ASWAD particularly welcomes panels that explore music, dance, language, literature, religion, spirituality, politics, and economics in Gullah/Geechee communities and throughout the African Diaspora.

As an interdisciplinary organization, ASWAD invites presentations that illuminate the lives of Africans and African descendants from scholars in any discipline, including the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, and performing and visual arts.

Of Special Note in 2015:
The Charleston, South Carolina Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture will be celebrating its 150th anniversary with the theme “On Our Own Terms.” We also invite panels that consider this and related themes.

ASWAD will be celebrating its 15th anniversary during the 2015 conference and invites panels that consider the field of African Diaspora Studies, future trends and areas of interest. We will also feature an ASWAD Special Panel on “Methodologies, Epistemologies, and Pedagogies in African Diaspora Studies” as well as “Mentoring for our Future.”

Gullah Students Vist the Oyotunji Village in Sheldon, SC

Leroy Campbell Visits Morehouse College

On March 24, 2015, Gullah artist Leroy Campbell came and spoke on Morehouse's campus about his life, artwork and influences. In his discussion, Campbell talked about his childhood, what it meant to be gullah, his occupations before becoming an artist and how he found his way to his art. Campbell talked about being ones authentic self and the importance of celebrating one's crafts and gifts. Campbell was a motivation to all who heard him speak and displayed some of his beautiful artwork. Campbell's work is being displayed across the world and is celebrated by many different communities.




Learn more about Leroy Campbell