Event Videos

Black History Month Presentation | Repatriating Africa’s Looted Heritage, Feb. 28, 2022
 

Susan McIntosh, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Anthropology and an affiliated faculty member in the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) at Rice University, presented "Repatriating Africa’s Looted Heritage," a Feb. 28, 2022, talk in observance of Black History Month sponsored by CAAAS and the Department of Anthropology.

Mary Prendergast, associate professor of anthropology and a Center for African and African American Studies affiliated faculty member, provided welcome and introductory remarks.

Robert Michael Franklin Jr., the James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership and senior advisor to the president at Emory University, presented "Dr. King and the Call for Moral Leadership in Turbulent Times" on Jan. 17, 2022. This Martin Luther King Jr. Day Lecture was sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) and the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL). Anthony B. Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities, professor of religion, and director of CAAAS and CERCL, provided welcome and introductory remarks, and Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, associate professor of history, CAAAS' director of undergraduate studies, and host of SlaveVoyages.org, moderated the Q&A session.

Leonard Wantchekon, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the founder and president of the African School of Economics and Pan African Scientific Research Council, presented "Education Spillovers: Evidence from Colonial Schools in Benin (West Africa)" on Nov. 17, 2021. This talk was sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), a collaboration between the Rice University School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences. Amy Dunham, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and a CAAAS affiliated faculty member, provided introductory remarks, and Hassan Henderson-Lott, a doctoral student in the Department of Religion, moderated the discussion.

Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, associate professor of Afro-Diaspora Studies at the Michigan State University, presented "Intimacies to Apocalypso: Afro-Latinx Studies in Afro-Atlantic Contexts," a talk on Nov. 10, 2021, as part of the Center for African and African American Studies event series. Rice University's Margarita M. Castromán Soto, assistant professor in the Department of English and an affiliated faculty member with the center, provided welcome and introductory remarks and Kimberly Jones, a graduate student in the Department of History, moderated the discussion.

Paul Joseph López Oro, assistant professor of Africana Studies at Smith College and the 2021-2022 Miriam Jiménez Román Fellow at the LatinX Project, New York University, presented "Garifuna/Black Caribs: Maroon Geographies of Indigenous Blackness," a talk on Oct. 6, 2021. Amarilys Estrella, assistant professor of anthropology in the School of Social Sciences and an affiliated faculty member of the Center for African and African American Studies, provided welcome and introductory remarks and De'Anna Daniels, a doctoral student in the African-American religion concentration in the Department of Religion in the School of Humanities, moderated the discussion.

Christel N. Temple, professor of Africana Studies and an affiliate of the Graduate Program for Cultural Studies, the Critical European Culture Studies doctoral program and the African Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh, presented "From Literary Pan-Africanism to Black Cultural Mythology: Reading Exile as a Memory Phenomenon" on April 9, 2021, the final talk in the Center for African and African American Studies Spring 2021 event series. Temple's major fields of interest are Africana Cultural Memory Studies, Comparative Africana Literature, Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Afroeuropean Studies. She has published widely on issues of Diaspora cultural theory and Africana literary history and criticism. Rice participants included Daniel Domingues, associate professor of history and director of undergraduate studies in the Center for African and African American Studies; and Elias Bongmba, the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion.

The first event of the Southeastern Texas African and African American Studies Consortium — a partnership between Rice University and its Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) and Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston — focused on "The History of African and African American Studies in Southeastern Texas." Participants in this Feb. 26, 2021 event included Rice's Anthony Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, Professor of Religion, and director of CAAAS; Nicole Waligora-Davis, associate professor of English and CAAAS steering committee member; and Fay Yarbrough ’97, associate professor of History, associate dean, Undergraduate Programs and Special Projects in the School of Humanities, and CAAAS affiliated faculty. Representing the partner universities were Linda Reed, associate professor of History, University of Houston; Melanye Price, Endowed Professor of Political Science and director, Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, Prairie View A&M University; and Cary D. Wintz ’65, Distinguished Professor of History and director of the History MA Program, Texas Southern University.

Ananya Jahanara Kabir, a professor of English Literature at King’s College London, whose work focuses on the intersection of the written text with other forms of cultural expression, memory work, and the relationship of resistance, trauma and pleasure, presented "Alegropolitics of the Afromodern Dance Floor" on Feb. 23, 2021 as part of the Center for African and African American Studies' Spring 2021 event series. Margarita M. Castromán Soto, assistant professor of English at Rice University and an affiliated faculty member of the center, offered introductory remarks and Daniel Domingues, associate professor of history at Rice and the center's director of undergraduate studies, moderated the Q&A discussion.

On Feb. 8, 2021, Derek R. Avery Ph.D. ’01, the C.T. Bauer Chair of Inclusive Leadership in the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, presented "Black in Business: What the Evidence Tells Us About Being a Black Employee" to kick off the Center for African and African American Studies' Spring 2021 event series. Danielle King, assistant professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Rice and an affiliated faculty in the Center for African and African American Studies, provided welcome and introductory remarks, and Jacqueline Couti, the Laurence H. Favrot Associate Professor of French Studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures at Rice, and associate director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality and an affiliated faculty in the Center for African and African American Studies, moderated the Q&A segment.

On Oct. 21, 2020, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, the James B. Duke Professor of Sociology at Duke University, delivered a talk titled "What Makes 'Systemic Racism' Systemic?" as part of an online event sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), BRIDGE (Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity) and the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice, with support from the School of Humanities Dean’s Office. Rice University's Jenifer Bratter, professor of sociology and founding director of BRIDGE (Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity), offered introductory remarks and Daniel Domingues, CAAAS' director of undergraduate studies and associate professor of history, moderated the Q&A.

Jacqueline Couti, the Laurence H. Favrot Associate Professor of French Studies at Rice University, led a panel discussion on Sept. 25, 2020, titled "Which Lives Matter? Race and Policing in France and Beyond" featuring the work and perspectives of Grégory Pierrot, Associate Professor of English, University of Connecticut at Stamford; Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University; and Anaïs Nony, Lecturer, Department of French, University College Cork. This online conversation was sponsored by Rice University's Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures, Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, and Center for African and African American Studies.

Alicia Odewale, assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Tulsa, presented a talk on Sept. 24, 2020, titled "Restorative Justice Archaeology: Unearthing the Aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre". The talk was sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) in collaboration with the university's Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice and BRIDGE (Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity). Jeffrey Fleisher, associate professor of anthropology and a member of the CAAAS steering committee, provided introductory remarks and Daniel Domingues, associate professor of history and CAAAS' director of undergraduate studies, moderated the Q&A.

On Sept. 9, 2020, Bryan Washington, the Rice University Scholar-in-Residence for Racial Justice and the George Guion Williams Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English, shared his experience writing essays and nonfiction at the intersections of race and setting in a dynamic cultural climate, with an emphasis on the pull writers' geography exerts on their work. The talk, "Writing Across Intersections," was sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), BRIDGE (Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity), the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice, and the Department of English. Nicole Waligora-Davis, associate professor of English and a member of the CAAAS steering committee, offered introductory remarks, and Daniel Domingues, associate professor of history and CAAAS' director of undergraduate studies, moderated the Q&A.

An expert in ethical leadership and renowned speaker, Walter Earl Fluker, the Dean’s Professor of Spirituality, Ethics and Leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Ethical Leadership at Boston University’s School of Theology, helped to kick off a series of Fall 2020 online conversations sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies and collaborators across Rice. His Aug. 28, 2020, talk, “Speaking from Sites Reserved for the Dead: Lingering Memories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and The Great Mistake Jamestown Made Long Ago,” commemorated the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, during which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.