Department of African American and Africana Studies

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Join the Department of African American and Africana Studies for their first Brown Bag of the semester. Dr. Beka Guluma will be presenting his preliminary research titled, "The African American Dream? Comparing Black Immigrant and Native-Born Black American Beliefs about Social Mobility"

"Scholars and observers have long noted that Black Americans exhibit a high degree of political unity. Despite great diversity within Black America, Black Americans tend to overwhelmingly back the Democratic Party and show wide support for a host of social programs and policies designed to uplift Black America. But with a large and growing Black immigrant population, the question emerges: is Black political unity waning? In this Brown Bag, I present very preliminary research that seeks to address the question of  whether Black immigrants exhibit similar levels of support for the Democratic Party, and for pro-Black social programs and policies as do native-born Black Americans."

Event Date and Time: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 from 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Location: Hybrid event - 1102 Taliaferro Hall/ Zoom

Learn more here

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In the early 1960s, Malcolm X famously criticized the philosophical and political bases of the African American “civil rights” movement, calling instead for a turn to what he called “the level of human rights” and redress through the United Nations rather than the U.S. federal government. This lecture seeks to understand the political and philosophical contradictions of Malcolm’s internationalism by placing its surprising mix of revolutionary liberalism and anti-imperialist nationalism in productive tension with earlier African American internationalisms, especially efforts at “worldmaking” through the United Nations. Recovering the important philosophical differences within oft-collapsed accounts of “black internationalism,”  the lecture takes stock of the different philosophical justifications for engaging the politics of global governance by W.E.B. Du Bois and William Patterson. Taking seriously these distinctions as central to the careful study and reconstruction of black political thought, I consider the lessons that Malcolm’s trajectory portends for contemporary efforts to connect aims of global justice and peace to African American struggles for racial justice.
 

This event will be held in a hybrid format both in-person and online from 2:00-3:30pm ET on October 23, 2024.

Learn more and register here.

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University of Maryland's Bahá'í Chair for World Peace, the Department of African American and Africana Studies, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and The Anti-Black Racism Initiative co-sponsor a discussion featuring presentations by Professor Olufemi Taiwo (Cornell University) and Professor Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali (Howard University). Professor Taiwo will explore "Against Decolonization: Africa's Place in the Global Circuit of Ideas," while Professor Mabeko-Tali will discuss "British Magna Carta vs. Mali Empire's Manden Kouroukan Fouga Charter: Comparing Historical Visions of Human Rights." The conversation will be moderated by Professor John E. Drabinski of the University of Maryland, College Park, and will conclude with a panel discussion and audience Q&A. 

Learn more and register here.