Blackness, Race, Sexuality, Power Explored During AFAM’s 50th Anniversary

On Feb. 21, 1969, a group of brave students chained the doors shut to their Fisk Hall classroom and demanded that Wesleyan offer more support to its black community. As a result of this peaceful protest, Wesleyan established the Center for African American Studies, the Malcolm X House dormitory, and the black student union, Ujamaa. The black students who graduated that spring became known as the Vanguard Class of 1969.

During the 2018–19 academic year, African American Studies is commemorating its 50th anniversary with a plethora of events surrounding the topic of “Blackness, Race, Sexuality, and Power.” In addition, the Vanguard Class will be honored at their 50th reunion, along with other students of that era, for their groundbreaking efforts. Their courage helped spur Wesleyan’s now cutting-edge scholarship and teaching in black history, literature, and the arts, along with race theory and critical approaches in anthropology, religion, science, and beyond.

The fall events include:

“Solidarity, Intersectionality & Resisting Oppression”
Feminist philosopher Carol Hay
Sept. 20 at 4:30 p.m.
Russell House
Sponsored by Philosophy Department

Boukman Eksperyans & Paul Beaubrun – Haitian Music
Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.
Downey Lounge
Sponsored by African American Studies and Music

Raphael Xavier: Point of Interest
Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
CFA Theater, tickets needed
Sponsored by Center for the Arts

Kahlil Robert Irving: “Street Matter — Decay & Forever / Golden Age” Opening Reception
Sept. 26 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Conversation: Kahlil Robert Irving and Professor Tony Hatch at 5 p.m.
Zilkha Gallery
Cosponsored by Center for the Arts and Center for African American Studies

Book Talk on Familiar Perversions: The Racial, Sexual, and Economic Politics of LGBT Families
Liz Montegary, SUNY Stony Brook
Sept. 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Judd 116
Sponsored by Queer Studies

Dwight L. Greene Symposium
“Black Phoenix Rising”
Professor Tony Hatch with students
Sept. 29 at 3:45 p.m.
Daniel Family Commons

“The Illusion of Equality in Kantian Cosmopolitanism”
Jameliah Bournahou, Georgia College
Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m.
Downey 113
A Theory Certificate Lecture

The Annual Richard Slotkin Lecture In American Studies
“Why Gender and Race Studies Scholars Must Intervene in Security Studies”
Inderpal Grewal, Yale University
Oct. 4 at 4:30 p.m.
Russell House
Sponsored by American Studies and the Center for the Americas

“Civil Rights, Civil Wrongs” Symposium
Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., registration required to attend. Free for 20 students (contact JSteele@wes)
Allbritton 311
Cosponsored by Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Center for African American Studies

Sorry to Bother You
Film screening with post-film discussion led by Casey Hayman, African American Studies
Oct. 12 at 8 p.m.
Goldsmith Family Cinema
Sponsored by Center for Film Studies and African American Studies

Oceanic Feelings in the Anthropocene: Ellen Gallagher’s Rising (Black) Atlantic
Heather Vermeulen, Andrew Mellon Post Doc, Wesleyan
Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.
Daniel Family Commons
Sponsored by Center for the Humanities and African American Studies

Populism and Bigotry: Lessons from the 1920s Ku Klux Klan
Linda Gordon, New York University
Oct. 16 at 11:50 a.m.
PAC 422
Hosted by the History Department

AMST 50th Anniversary Symposium
Nov. 2 from noon to 6 p.m.
Powell Theater
Hosted by American Studies with African American Studies

FGSS Annual Symposium
A conversation about HIV/AIDS and its histories, Black lives and health, queer historiographies, and writing practices
Panelists are Linda Villarosa, City College of New York and Khary Polk, Amherst College
Nov. 2 at noon
Russell House
Sponsored by FGSS

Embodied Engineering: Gender, Technology, and Body Politics in Mali (West Africa)
Laura Ann Twagira, Wesleyan University
Nov. 5 at 6 p.m.
Daniel Family Commons
Sponsored by Center for Humanities

AFAM Soulful Thanksgiving, Workshop and Dinner
Nov. 16 at 3 p.m.
Malcolm X House Lounge
Hosted by the Center for African American Studies

Refuse Bodies and the Technologies of Waste Production in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Marisa Fuentes, Rutgers University
Nov. 26 at 6 p.m.
Daniel Family Commons
Sponsored by Center for Humanities

Whither Fanon?: Studies in the Blackness of Being
David Marriott
Dec. 6 at 4:30 p.m.
Russell House
Cosponsored by Philosophy and African American Studies

West African Drumming and Dance
Dec. 8 at 7 p.m.
CFA Crowell Concert Hall (CFA B) Crowell Concert Hall

Events during the spring semester will include a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Jan. 21, 2019; a presentation by distinguished alumni speaker Saidiya Hartman ’83 on March 28, 2019; the Hugo Black Lecture in April 2019; the Edgar Beckham Helping Hands dinner and awards in April 2019; the grand 50th celebration in May 2019, and more.