Conference 2025 Schedule Day 2

Please visit the registration table upon arrival. Light breakfast items will be available. 

Moderator: Rebecca Rubin Damari, Director of Research, National Foreign Language Center (NFLC); Co-Director, Professionals in Education Advancing Research and Language Learning (PEARLL), University of Maryland

Presenters:

• Ambachew A Anjulo, PhD Student, African Studies, Howard University - “Decolonizing Curriculum: Deconstructing Eurocentric myths about Race and colonialism in the Kenyan educational system”
• Kazeem Sanuth, Associate Director, National African Language Resource Center (NALRC), Indiana University, Bloomington - “Exploring the State of African Language Instructions in U.S. Institutions: Historical Context and Future Prospects”
• Taylor Lewis, PhD Student, College of Education, University of Maryland - “Code-switching tricksters, dual shadows, and decolonizing Black linguistics”
• Oluwatoyin Olanipekun, Doctoral Student, Second Language Acquisition, University of Wisconsin-Madison - “Address Terms as a Site of Identity Negotiation: Insights from an African Graduate Student”

Moderator: Sangeetha Madhavan, Professor and Chair, African American and Africana Studies; Professor, Sociology, University of Maryland

Presenters:

• Jessica Salzwedel, Doctoral Student, Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland - “The Power of Partnership: The Impact of African Civil Society Throughout the Research Lifecycle”
• Emily Mendenhall, Professor, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University - “Long Covid Digital Activism in Kenya: From Digital Center to Periphery”
• Ayobami Adekola, Post Doctoral Researcher, Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa - “Toward a More Equitable Future: Innovations and Interventions to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in South Africa”
• Kirsten Stoebenau, Associate Research Professor, Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland - “The limits to empowerment: A narrative analysis of young women beneficiaries' agency in sexual relationships within a combination HIV prevention program”
• Benedicta Osafo-Darko, PhD Student, Behavioral and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland - “Using a strengths-based approach to understand the lived experience of resilience in African-born Black women living with HIV in the US”
• Danette Frederique, Licensed Practitioner, LGPC - “Girl, I'm Tired: Reimagining Black Motherhood & Mental Healthcare”

While lunch will only be available for a limited group, we invite attendees to pack or bring their lunch for some lunchtime conversation with other attendees. 

Conference attendees can visit one of the many dining options at Stamp Student Union for lunch. There is also a cafe on the first floor of H.J. Patterson (Samovar), as well as various other dining options near HJP and around campus.

We invite all conference attendees to enjoy the snacks and beverages available throughout the conference.

Since the late 20th century, a new moral economy has emerged centered on the suffering, misfortune, and precarity of individuals and communities facing inequality, disease, displacement, and armed conflict. Anthropologist Didier Fassin broadly defines humanitarianism as “the deployment of moral sentiments in contemporary politics” (Fassin 2012:1). Anthropologists, political scientists, and other scholars have explored a range of humanitarian interventions from the perspectives of aid recipients and those implementing them to understand how life is lived under various forms of humanitarian governmentality. Although framed as altruistic, recent discussions emphasize the cynicism and opportunism these logics can foster. Africa looms large in these debates. Drawing on research in the Horn of Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, and Kenya, this roundtable highlights the tensions between the promises of humanitarianism and its uneven, often contradictory realities. 

Roundtable Chair: Cady Gonzalez, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Maryland

Participants:

• Matthew Thomann, Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of Maryland
• Michael Woldemariam, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
• Ampson Hagan, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Maryland

The search for ways to produce knowledge that promotes decolonial processes is a significant challenge for science. Much of the discussion centers on empowering local communities by fostering their independence without introducing subtle new forms of colonization, such as global agendas or Western epistemologies. Geography plays a key role in this debate, increasingly incorporating local voices into scientific knowledge production and spatial representation. This roundtable will explore the challenges and opportunities of decolonial geographical research. By sharing experiences from projects in conservation, health, and community development, it will examine how including local perspectives can promote decolonization. The discussion will address the limitations of research in making tangible impacts on local communities and the tensions between universal theories and local needs, which may perpetuate intellectual colonialism. Ethical and methodological challenges regarding the legitimacy of foreign research projects will also be considered.

Roundtable Chair: Juan Martin Dabezies, Associate Research Professor, Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland; Adjunct Professor, University of the Republic, Uruguay
Roundtable Discussant: Meredith Gore, Professor, Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland

Participants:

• Julie Silva, Professor, Geography, University of Buffalo
• Bienvenu M Takem Mbi, Postdoctoral Associate, Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland

When Africans are in diaspora in the Americas, they encounter stigmas deeply rooted in the pre-established biopolitics of host societies. From Mexico to Canada, Africans in diaspora face challenges not only from local populations but also from their Black counterparts, leading to complex dynamics within the broader spectrum of racial identity. Many find themselves positioned as “blacker” than other people of color, subjected to a perception of inferiority based on their diasporic identity. This panel seeks to address these experiences, exploring how historical legacies and cultural narratives contribute to the construction of Black identities and the challenges faced by Afro-descendant communities in navigating their place within society. 

Panel Chair: Samuel Josue Aguayo, PhD Student, Spanish Language and Literatures, University of Maryland - "The Meaning of the term Black: Origins in Colonial New Spain and Impacts on Contemporary Cultural Products in Mexico"

Panelists:

• Maurice Tente, PhD Student, Washington University in St. Louis - "Marginalized Voices: Trauma, Race, and Identity in Louisiana's Nineteenth Century Francophone Narratives"
• Andisheh Ghaderi, Lecturer, French, Washington University in St. Louis - "Beyond Borders and Stereotypes: Rethinking African Immigrant and African American Connections in Rachid Bouchareb’s Cinema"
• Irene Kemunto-Momanyi, PhD Candidate, French and Francophone Studies, Pennsylvania State University - "Echoes Across Borders: Testimonial Narratives, Diasporic Memory, and the Fight Against Genocide Denial in the Rwandan Diaspora"

Join us at the Global Crossroads Atrium (H.J. Patterson, 1st floor) for light refreshments.