Winter Institute for Black Studies Coming Jan. 15-16
University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaPresident-Elect Barack Obama‘s campaign and election will be among the topics discussed at the University of Hawaiʻi Faculty of African Descent‘s Third Biennial Winter Institute for Black Studies.
The gathering, to be held at the East-West Center from January 15-16, 2009, is themed, "The ʻAlternative‘ African Diaspora: Interdisciplinary Roundtables on Emergent, Oppositional and New Discourses in the Field." The roundtable discussions are free and open to the public. There is an optional $35 package for breakfast and lunch with the speakers.
The conference‘s opening reception and dinner will be held on Thursday, January 15, at the Hibiscus Ballroom of the Ala Moana Hotel. The keynote address, "Why Diaspora?: Rethinking African Peoples and Power in the Twenty-First Century," will be presented by Dr. Kim D. Butler, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
Cost for the opening reception and dinner is $55. To register, see http://www.uhwibs.com/documents/WIBSRegistrationForm.pdf.
Conference roundtables will take place on Friday, January 16, at the Imin Conference Center, East-West Center, on the UH Mānoa campus. Distinguished scholars in the field will discuss a range of topics, including "Black European Studies: A New Field Emerges," "By Land, Sea and Cyber: Alternative Spaces of Black Culture, Identity and Diaspora," and "Changing and Challenging Socio-Political Discourses: Multiculturalism, Transnational Politics and Black Political Arenas."
There will also be a screening of the film, "Holding Fast the Dream: Hawaiʻi‘s African-American Experience."
Sponsors are the UH Office of the President, UHM College of Arts and Humanities, UHM College of Social Sciences, UHM Department of Ethnic Studies, UHM Office of the Chancellor and Kapiʻolani Community College.