2026 Schedule
NOTE: The conference schedule details are in progress. Please visit us again soon for more information.
Conference 2026 Schedule
- 1:30 pm - 1:55 pm – Coffee and opening remarks
Please visit the registration table upon arrival.
- 2:00 pm - 3:15
The roundtable title and description will be posted in mid-March.
Confirmed participants:
Nicole Angotti, Associate Professor, Sociology, American University
Kenneth Leonard, Professor & Chair, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland
Matthew Thomann, Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of Maryland
Sangeetha Madhavan, Professor & Chair, African American and Africana Studies; Professor, Sociology, University of Maryland- 3:15 pm - 3:40 pm – Reception
Light refreshments will be available.
- 3:45 pm - 5:00 pm – Opening Keynote Address: "The Long Crisis of Black Masculinity in Racial Capitalism"
Keynote Speaker: Jordanna Matlon, Associate Professor, Department of Global Inquiry, School of International Service, American University
In this talk, I explore labor narratives and imaginaries of Black masculinity in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Engaging the histories, representational repertoires, and performative identities of men in Abidjan and across the Black Atlantic, I examine how French colonial legacies and media tropes of Blackness act as powerful axes, rooting masculine identity and value within labor, consumerism, and commodification. I draw on fieldwork I conducted examining the livelihoods and lifestyles of underemployed Abidjanais men and consider the methodological entanglements and theoretical implications around my ethnography of transnational Blackness.
- 9:45 am - 10:15 am – Morning reception
Please visit the registration table upon arrival. Light breakfast items will be available.
- 10:15 am - 10:30 am – Dean Stephanie Shonekan Remarks
Dean Stephanie Shonekan, College of Arts and Humanities
- 10:35 am - 11:50 am – Arts, Literature, and Cultural Production Roundtable Discussion
The roundtable title and description will be posted in mid-March.
Confirmed participants:
Amsale Alemu, Assistant Professor, African Studies, Howard University
Chambi Chachage, Assistant Professor, African Studies, Howard University
K.E. Coney-Ali, Adjunct Lecturer, Art Department; Co-Executive Director, Gallery of Art, Howard University
Lisa Gilman, Director, Institute for Immigration Research; Professor, Folklore and English, George Mason University
Caroline Maguire, Professorial Lecturer, Museum Studies, George Washington University; Provenance Researcher, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Jonathon Repinecz, Associate Professor, French and Global Affairs, George Mason University- 11:50 am - 12:50 pm – Lunch
Buffet lunch open to all conference attendees on a first come, first served basis.
- 12:55 pm - 2:10 pm – Environmental Justice and Sustainability Roundtable Discussion
The roundtable title and description will be posted in mid-March.
Confirmed participants:
Maurice Carney, Executive Director, Friends of the Congo
Jayson Maurice Porter, Assistant Professor, History & Latin America and Caribbean Studies Center, University of Maryland
Amy Yeboah Quarkume, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, Howard University
Quito J. Swan, Professor, History and Africana Studies; Director, Africana Studies Program, George Washington University- 2:10 pm - 2:25 pm – Coffee Break
- 2:25 pm - 3:40 pm – Governance and Politics Roundtable Discussion
The roundtable title and description will be posted in mid-March.
Confirmed participants:
Ampson Hagan, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Maryland
Bulelani Jili, Assistant Professor, African Studies, Georgetown University
Carl LeVan, Professor, School of International Service; Chair, Politics, Governance and Economics, American University
Titilola Halimat Somotan, Assistant Professor, African Studies, Georgetown University
Michael Woldemariam, Associate Professor, Public Policy; Senior Fellow, Center for International & Security Studies at Maryland, University of Maryland- 3:40 pm - 4:10 pm – Afternoon Reception
Light refreshments will be available.
- 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm – Closing Keynote Address: "Building Whose Future? China's Digital Footprint and the Politics of Transformation in Africa"
Keynote Speaker: Anita Plummer, Associate Professor, African Studies; Director, Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership, Howard University
Africa's digital transformation has been celebrated as a pathway to development, inclusion, and economic sovereignty. Yet the infrastructure underpinning that promise telecommunications networks, data centers, fiber optic cables, and mobile platforms is increasingly financed and built by China, raising urgent questions about whose vision of modernity is being constructed, and for whom. This talk argues that digital transformation is not a technological or economic inevitability but deeply contested political terrain, one that demands analysis rooted in lived experience, structural power relations, and specifically the collective agency of African women.