The Africana Studies minor broadens students' world perspectives by enhancing their acquaintance with an understanding of the peoples, cultures and institutions of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Conference Opening Session
Folklore Night: "A Celebration of Africana Folk Culture"
Thursday 20th October 2011James Madison University Africana Studies 3rd Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
FOLK CULTURE: MORPHING THE WORLD'S CULTURAL FACE
James Madison University, October 21st, 2011.
Keynote Speaker: Daryl Cumber Dance, the "Dean of Folkculture"
Born out of celebrations and struggles through history and handed down orally, through artifacts and now also through written, audio-visual and new media, Africana folk culture is permeated throughout by an overriding syncretism in which seemingly impenetrable cleavages of region, language, nationality, ethnicity, and ideology are daily subliminated in the diasporic production of culture. Be it by word, song, visual forms, performed arts, inter-personal interactions, or other forms of expression, each manifestation of the Africana cultural form is distinctive for its soulful spirit and dynamism. Africana folk culture continues to influence and impact world consciousness, cultures, politics, economics, education, language, technology, and religion.
We are seeking papers, panels*, artistic renderings, posters and other presentations on work by scholars from all disciplines, as well as organizers and activists engaging the novelty, advances, and originality of Africana cultural expressions across disciplines. We are especially interested in creating those three E's - engagement, experience, and encountering - that preserve and inform Africana cultural expressions, even when other elements of Africaneity are the subject of contestation and debate.