To explore past events in the From Slavery to Freedom Lab speaker series, click here
Dr. Reid-Pharr asks, why, in a period in U.S. history in which questions of Black life and Black death are at the center of our public debates, have so few intellectuals taken up the matter of the 918 individuals, most of whom were African American, who died in a mass suicide in “Jonestown,” Guyana in 1978? Reading the details of the events against works of fiction and poetry by Wilson Harris and Pat Parker, Reid-Pharr asks how we might develop new forms of memorialization that name—and value—both the victors and the victims, the noble and the vulgar.
ROBERT F. REID-PHARR is Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. A specialist in African American culture and a prominent scholar in the field of race and sexuality studies, he is the author of four books: Conjugal Union: The Body, the House, and the Black American, Oxford University Press, 1999; Black, Gay, Man: Essays, New York University Press, 2001; Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual, New York University Press, 2007; and Archives of Flesh: African America, Spain, and Post Humanist Critique, New York University Press, 2016. His research and writing have been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His writing has been honored by the Publishing Triangle and the Modern Language Association. In 2015 he was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and he is the recipient of a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.
Please join the From Slavery to Freedom Lab for a master class and public conversation with Dr. Deborah Willis!
MASTER CLASS on African Americans and Civil War Photography
Lunch served at 11:30 am | Seminar 12:00–2:00 pm | RSVP Required
From Slavery to Freedom Lab (Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C106)
Join Dr. Deborah Willis for a master class that will teach about photography of the Civil War and images of African American soldiers. Registration and prior reading required. Please email jennifer.zhou@duke.edu to RSVP.
PICTURING US: The Work of Deborah Willis
Conversation 5:00 pm | Reception 6:00 pm | Books available for purchase
Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall (Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105)
Join Dr. Deborah Willis and Dr. Jasmine Cobb for a public conversation on Willis’s body of work since “Picturing Us,” including research examining photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of Slavery and Emancipation; contemporary women photographers and beauty.
ABOUT DEBORAH WILLIS:
Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural, Africana Studies, where she teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. She has pursued a dual professional career as an art photographer and as one of the nation’s leading historians of African American photography and curator of African American culture.
In addition to making art, writing and teaching, she has served as a consultant to museums, archives, and educational centers. She has appeared and consulted on media projects including the documentary films such as Through A Lens Darkly, Question Bridge: Black Males, a transmedia project, which received the ICP Infinity Award 2015, and American Photography, PBS Documentary. Since 2006 she has co-organized thematic conferences exploring imaging the black body in the West. Professor Willis has been elected to the board of the Society for Photographic Education, where she was Chair of the Board and received the Honored Educator Award in 2012 and the College Art Association. She holds honorary degrees from Pratt Institute and the Maryland Institute, College of Art. She is currently researching a book on an early 20th century portraitist and educator.
Please join the From Slavery to Freedom Lab for Dr. Tina Campt’s lecture, “Prelude to a New Black Gaze” as well as a lunchtime seminar on “Archival Image Research and Diaspora.” See below for further details. (Event is also on Facebook)
LECTURE: Prelude to a New Black Gaze
Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105
Coffee and a light breakfast available at 9:00 am
Lecture from 9:30 am – 10:30 am
What is a “black gaze”? The term is both an invitation and a provocation to reflect on our current moment of diasporic countervisuality. It is a paradoxical moment forged “in the wake” (Sharpe, 2017) of the afterlife of slavery — a moment when we are inundated by images of precarious black life and antiblack violence, while simultaneously witnessing an ascendance of black aesthetics in the fine arts and in popular culture. This paradox provides the foundation for the emergence of a black gaze. Focusing on the critical and creative ways black artists are repurposing the amateur visual archive of the black experience, the talk explores the new visual modalities they are creating to render and the radical possibilities they present for imagining different kinds of black futurity.
SEMINAR (RSVP Required): Archival Image Research and Diaspora
From Slavery to Freedom Lab, Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C106
Lunch served at 12:00 pm
Seminar from 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Please email slaverytofreedom@duke.edu to RSVP.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Tina Campt is Claire Tow and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Africana and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College-Columbia University. She is the author of three books: Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender and Memory in the Third Reich (2004), Image Matters: Archive, Photography and the African Diaspora in Europe (2012), and Listening to Images (2017). She is a black feminist theorist of visual culture and contemporary art, and is completing a new collection of essays entitled, The New Black Gaze. Campt is currently in residence as Abigail R. Cohen Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, and was recently appointed as a Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The From Slavery to Freedom Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute presents: Black Women Writers at Work. On September 6, 2019 in Penn Pavilion, we invite you to celebrate the lives and work of some of the pioneers of Black Feminist Studies. The honored guests, who will reflect on their work, include:
- Dr. Carole Boyce Davies (Cornell University, Professor of English and Africana Studies)
- Dr. Hazel V. Carby (Yale University, Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies & American Studies)
- Dr. Thadious Davis (University of Pennsylvania, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of English)
- Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Spelman College, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies and Founding Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center)
- Dr. Deborah McDowell (University of Virginia, Alice Griffin Professor of English and Director, Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies)
- Dr. Cheryl Wall (Rutgers University, Board of Governors and Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English)
- Dr. Michele Wallace (City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, Professor Emeritus, Department of English and President and Founder of The Faith Ringgold Society)
- Dr. Mary Helen Washington (University of Maryland, Distinguished University Professor of English)
A keynote will be presented by Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin (Columbia University, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies).
SCHEDULE:
12:30PM — Doors open
Coffee provided.
1:00PM — Welcome
Opening remarks from Provost Sally Kornbluth.
1:20PM — Keynote Presentation, Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin
2:20PM — Panel 1
Featuring reflections from Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Dr. Deborah McDowell, Dr. Cheryl Wall, and Dr. Michele Wallace.
3:45PM — Panel 2
Featuring reflections from Dr. Carole Boyce Davies, Dr. Hazel Carby, Dr. Thadious Davis, and Dr. Mary Helen Washington.
5:10PM — Closing remarks
5:30PM–7:00PM — Reception
With catering by the Nasher Café and music from the John Brown Trio.
PARKING INSTRUCTIONS:
Because many registered attendees are not affiliated with Duke, we strongly encourage members of the Duke community to utilize the campus bus system so that we can ensure parking spaces are available for those coming from outside of Duke.
There are two parking lots available: the Chemistry Lot and the Student Wellness Lot. There will be parking attendants and signs at both.
The Chemistry Lot is a nine-minute walk from Penn Pavilion. (See map here)
The “Student Wellness Lot” is just across the street from Penn Pavilion on Union Drive.
*** Please email slaverytofreedom@duke.edu if you have accessibility needs so that we may reserve you a parking space in the Student Wellness Lot.
Email slaverytofreedom@duke.edu with any further questions.
We hope you’ll join the celebration!
The From Slavery to Freedom Lab is based at the FHI with support from the Mellon Foundation’s Global Engagement Fund in the Duke Office of Global Affairs.
Please join the From Slavery to Freedom Lab for two events with Dr. Tracy Sharpley-Whiting. Both are free and open to the public.
SEMINAR: When the Research Becomes Personal, or “Men I’d Like to Have Known”
- Lunch 12–12:30 pm | Seminar 12:30–2 pm
- From Slavery to Freedom Lab | Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C106
- RSVP Required | Email slaverytofreedom@duke.edu
Dr. Sharpley-Whiting explores her encounter with slavery archives, her runaway slave great, great grandfather, and Daniel Boone and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
PRESENTATION: The Other Americans
- Presentation 4–5 pm | Reception 5–5:30 pm
- Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall | Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105
Drawn from Bricktop’s Paris and its exploration of black women expats in Paris, this talk explores the centrality of black women in our cultural imagination, despite their erasure, and Dr. Sharpley-Whiting’s own attempts to recover them, beginning with the volume, Black Venus.
TRACY DENEAN SHARPLEY-WHITING is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French at Vanderbilt University where she directs the Callie House Research Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics and chairs the Department of African American Studies. She is author/editor of 15 books and three novels, the latest of which include the L’Harmattan French edition, “La Vénus hottentote: écrits, 1810 à 1814, suivi des textes inédits”; the co-edited “Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism” (2018) and “Sexualités, identité & corps colonisés: XVe siècle – XXIe siècle” (2019), and “Bricktop’s Paris: African American Women Expatriates in Jazz-Age Paris and The Autobiography of Ada Bricktop Smith, or Miss Baker Regrets”, a 2015 American Library in Paris Book Award Long List nominee and Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2015. She is currently working on a monograph, “Men I’d Like to Have Known.”
The From Slavery to Freedom Lab is based at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University with support from the Mellon Foundation’s Global Engagement Fund in the Duke Office of Global Affairs.
RSVP Required | Facebook | Duke Calendar
The From Slavery to Freedom Lab presents a two-day conference to explore iconic images and popular constructions of blackness in culture.
On Thursday, January 16th, artist Titus Kaphar and Dr. Jasmine Nichole Cobb will have a public conversation in the Nasher Museum auditorium. Doors will open at 5pm. The conversation will start at 6pm and conclude at 7pm.
This event is cosponsored by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute as part of its World Arts speaker series; the Nasher Museum of Art; the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts—Duke Arts; the department of African & African American Studies; the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship; Duke Council on Race and Ethnicity; and the department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.
RSVP Required | Facebook | Duke Calendar
The From Slavery to Freedom Lab presents a two-day conference to explore iconic images and popular constructions of blackness in culture.
Following the keynote conversation with Titus Kaphar on Thursday, January 16th, on Friday, January 17th, a panel and series of presentations will take place in the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall at the Franklin Humanities Institute from 10am–3pm.
SCHEDULE:
10am | Light breakfast served
10:30am–12:15pm | Panel 1: Icons of Slavery and Freedom
- Jasmine Nichole Cobb (moderator) | Bacca Foundation Associate Professor African & African American Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University
- Cheryl Finley | Inaugural Distinguished Visiting Director at Atlanta University Center Collective for the Study of Art History & Curatorial Studies
- Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby | Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of the Arts & Humanities, History of Art at U.C. Berkeley
12:15pm | Lunch served
1:00pm–3:00pm | Panel 2: New Black Aesthetics (Speakers will each present a 20 minute paper followed by a a 10 minute Q+A.)
- Meg Onli | Andrea B. Laporte Associate Curator at Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania
- Rhea L. Combs | Curator at Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History & Culture
- Richard J. Powell | John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University
Reception to follow.
This event is cosponsored by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute as part of its World Arts speaker series; the Nasher Museum of Art; the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts—Duke Arts; the department of African & African American Studies; the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship; Duke Council on Race and Ethnicity; and the department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.
Nina Ebner, an advocate with the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee (DMSC)/Fronterizx Fianza Fund, will unpack recent developments in Juarez/El Paso during an hour-long workshop. In it, she will discuss her work with DMSC, an abolitionist collective of femmes and queer individuals, fighting for more equitable immigration policy, the demilitarization of border communities and an end to migrant detention. The talk will be followed with time for Q&A addressing how space—and place—is fought for.
The workshop, as part of the “Spanish Narratives of Migration” Seminar will take place via Zoom on Thursday, April 2, 2020 from 3:05-4:20. It is open to the public but will require pre-registration and a password to join.
https://duke.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5MqceCvqjIpN9LDuNjBZu3daEotbA03JQ
Please email Anna Tybinko (anna.tybinko@duke.edu) for the event password and prior access to readings.
“Migration, Slavery, and the Black Mediterranean”
Dr. Michelle Murray, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Vanderbilt University
Thursday, February 25, 2021
12:00–1:30 p.m. (EST)
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Format: This talk will take place as part Dr. Lamonte Aidoo’s undergraduate seminar, “Brazil, Race, Sex and the Body” but is open to broader publics through the From Slavery to Freedom Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute. After introductory remarks by Dr. Aidoo, Dr. Murray will present her most recent research on the legacies of slavery in the Mediterranean. The presentation will be followed by a response by Anna Tybinko, Ph.D. Candidate in Romance Studies, and time for Q&A.
Description: This talk theorizes the Black Mediterranean through two examples. The first is the underwater sculpture “The Raft of Lampedusa” by British artist Jason deCaires located in Lanzarote. Combining critiques of ocean pollution and migrant deaths, Murray contends that the groundbreaking (or sea-breaking) artwork manifests an unprecedented engagement with ecological and racial justice. The second example is the Barcelona statue of the wealthy impresario Antonio López y López located in the plaza of the same name; this monument was removed on March 4, 2018 as the Barcelona city council stated it could no longer pay homage to someone who benefited from the slavery of others. Both examples build and enhance the work of Paul Gilroy and his theory of the “Black Atlantic” as an important space of Black cultural production. However, they also call into question the so-called “tyranny of the Atlantic” (Allen), to make space for a new approach to that rich legacy—one that is far less bound specific geographies and national traditions.
About the speaker: Michelle Murray’s research and teaching focus on contemporary Spanish literature and film. Her first book, Home Away from Home: Immigrant Narratives, Domesticity, and Coloniality in Contemporary Spanish Culture, (UNC Press for North Carolina Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures, 2018) studies representations of immigrant women as domestic workers in contemporary Spain. She is currently working on a manuscript entitled Migrant Markets; this book explores migration, political economy, and trafficking in the Southern Mediterranean.
This event is presented by the From Slavery to Freedom Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute and cosponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Department of Romance Studies, and the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
The FS2F Lab is based at the FHI with support from the Mellon Foundation’s Global Engagement Fund in the Duke Office of Global Affairs.
Join the From Slavery to Freedom Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute for a book workshop with Dr. Jeffrey Coleman, Associate Professor of Spanish, Marquette University, to discuss his recently published monograph: “The Necropolitical Theatre: Race and Immigration on the Contemporary Spanish Stage” (Northwestern University Press, 2020.)
Dr. Coleman will address the research, manuscript preparation and publication process for an academic book with ample time for Q&A.
***After registering, you will receive a Zoom invitation with a link to download the Introduction & 3 of “The Necropolitical Theatre.”
“The Necropolitical Theater: Race and Immigration on the Contemporary Spanish Stage” demonstrates how theatrical production in Spain since the early 1990s has reflected national anxieties about immigration and race. Jeffrey K. Coleman argues that Spain has developed a “necropolitical theater” that casts the non-European immigrant as fictionalized enemy—one whose nonwhiteness is incompatible with Spanish national identity and therefore poses a threat to the very Europeanness of Spain. The fate of the immigrant in the necropolitical theater is death, either physical or metaphysical, which preserves the status quo and provides catharsis for the spectator faced with the notion of racial diversity. Marginalization, forced assimilation, and physical death are outcomes suffered by Latin American, North African, and sub-Saharan African characters, respectively, and in these differential outcomes determined by skin color Coleman identifies an inherent racial hierarchy informed by the legacies of colonization and religious intolerance. “The Necropolitical Theater” offers a prime example of the importance of extending Black Studies beyond national borders, across specific geographic areas and creative mediums.
Organized by Anna Tybinko through the From Slavery to Freedom Lab. Co-sponsored by Romance Studies, CLACS and the Kenan Institute for Ethics.