Preliminary Conference Schedule
(Note: Conference staff will be at the check-in table throughout the conference to assist you with any information you may need.)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
OPENING SESSION Mason Hall
6:00PM - 9:00PM African Drummers
Welcome and Conference Overview
Wendi Manuel-Scott, Conference Chair
Director of African and African American Studies
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Keynote Speakers
Colin Palmer
Dodge Professor of History
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Reception
Friday, October 9, 2009
8:30AM REGISTRATION AND CHECK-IN (Johnson Center)
8:30AM - 4:00PM Exhibitors (Johnson Center)
PANELS
10:00AM - 12:00PM Johnson Center
Session 1
Plenary Panel: Through the Lens of Africanity: Reconceptualizing Obama in the Past and Present
Panelists: Ibrahim Sundiata, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Joe Leonard, Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights, United States Department of Agriculture
Joseph Miller, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Moderator: Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
12:00PM - 1:00PM Johnson Center
Lunch Break
1:15PM - 3:00PM Johnson Center
Session 2
Panel A: Imagining Blackness: Race, Color, and African Identity in Popular Culture
- "Michelle Obama, Reggie Love, and the New Paradigms of African American Female Beauty and Male Attractiveness in the Age of Obama," Hazel McFerson, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
- "A Better Built Cell Block: America's Devaluing of Hip Hop Intellectual Identity," Toby Jenkins, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
- "Everyday Encounters: An Ethnographic Examination of Afro-Brazilians and U.S. Black Media Images in Sao Paulo, Brazil," Reighan Gillam, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Commentator: Zita Nunes, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Panel B: The Black Body and Black Identity: Era of Change or Continuity?
- "The Impact of Obama's Inclusive Politics on African American Minority Representation," Dierdre Powell, Anne Arundel Community College, Anne Arundel County, MD
- "Obama and the New American Identity," John Scoville, Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio
- "In a Post-Racial Society: Blackness and the Prisoner Subjectivity," Patrice Douglass, University of California, Riverside, CA
Commentator: Yevette Richards Jordan, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
3:15PM - 5:00PM Johnson Center
Session 3
Panel A: Not Another Re-Mix: Obama, Hip-Hop and the (Re)construction of Black Identity
- "Disciplines of Deviance: Educational Practices and the Construction of family in the Hip-Hop Dance Crew," Derrick Leon Washington, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
- "Contemporary Ideological Threats to the Internal Security of African Americans," Michael Tillotson, University of Houston, Houston, TX
- "Yes We Can? The Construction of Post-Racial Rhetoric in Obama-Hop," Travis Gosa, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Commentator: Thomas Stanley, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Panel B: Representations and Aesthetics: Masculinity, Memory and African Identity in the 21st Century
- "Cape Verdean Youth and the Fact of Blackness" Paul Khalil Sacier, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI
- "Barack Obama as a Postmodern Invisible Man," S. Ekema Agbaw, Bloomsburg University
- "Barack Obama as Jean Toomer's 1923 Blue Man in the 21st Century," Chezia Thompson Strand, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Commentator: Helon Habila Ngalabak, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
5:15PM - 6:30PM Johnson Center
Art Exhibition and Reception "Skin: American in Black and White" By Solomon Wondimu
Saturday, October 10, 2009
8:30AM REGISTRATION AND CHECK-IN (Johnson Center)
FOR WORKSHOP
8:30AM - 4:00PM Exhibitors (Johnson Center)
10:00AM - 11:45AM Johnson Center
Session 4
Panel A: Fade to Black: Obama and Global Visions of Race
- "Obama and the Blacks in France: A Case Study of an Online Forum," Gado Alzouma, American University of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria
- "Defining 'African' and 'American' when 'Black' in the Principle Identifier: Nollywood's Contribution to the 21st Century Rewriting of Black Screen Imagery," Sharron Greaves, Nyack College, Nyack, NY
- "Hatred, Headscarves, and Identity: Immigration and Assimilation in France," Laura Fyfe, African and European Division, Foreign Service Institute, Arlington, VA
Commentator: Lorenzo Morris, Howard University, Washington D.C.
Panel B: Searching for POTUS: The Intersections of Citizenship, Politics, and Gender in the Age of Obama
- "American Media and the 2008 Campaign to Contain Michelle Obama," Jo-Ann Morgan, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL
- "'Chicago's Obama/Obama's Chicago': Tracking the President Across Chicago's Landscape," Nicole Anderson-Cobb, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL
- "Obama and the African Diaspora," Bill Jong-Ebot, Florida Memorial University, Miami Gardens, FL
Commentator: Rutledge Dennis, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
12:00PM -1:30PM Johnson Center
LUNCH PROGRAM
Center for History and New Media Teacher Workshop: " New Media, Race and African Identities in the classroom"
(Note: This program is open to all conference participants. Advanced registration is $15 per person.)
1:45PM - 3:30PM Johnson Center
Plenary Panel: Fallacies, Myths and Practices: The Making of Modern African Identities
Panelists: Zain Abdullah, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Mbye Baboucar Cham, Howard University, Washington D.C.
John Paden, Robinson Professor, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Moderator: Ben Carton, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
4:00PM - 6:00PM Johnson Center Cinema
Film Screening: "The Neo-African Americans: A Living Documentary"
Discussion of the film with the director, Kobina Aidoo