The Department of African American Studies is an intellectual community committed to producing, refining and advancing knowledge of Black people in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Africa. A key component of our mission is to interrogate the meanings and dimensions of slavery and colonialism, and their continuing political, social and cultural implications.
Our faculty is drawn from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, literature, history, sociology, performance, and creative writing. We are united by a relentless commitment to pushing the boundaries of knowledge through excellence in scholarship and pedagogy that are at once interdisciplinary and innovative.
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May 17, 2024
9:00 am
Zellerbach Auditorium
Berkeley, CA
Registration TBA
Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America
Time: Date: Location: 223 Philosophy Hall
Speaker: Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey
20th-century Black history cannot be understood without accounting for the influence of Pan-African thought. In his new book CrossBorder Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America, Dr. Wendell Adjetey explores how global Black liberation movements began within the U.S.-Canadian borderlands as cross-border, continental struggles. As revolutionaries from Oakland to Toronto dreamed of an “African world”, the prospect of coalitions among the Black Power, Red Power, and Quebecois Power movements inspired U.S. and Canadian intelligence services to infiltrate and sabotage Black organizations across North America. This work reveals the revolutionary legacies of the Underground Railroad and America’s Great Migration, and the hemispheric and transatlantic dimensions of this history.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey is assistant professor of post-Reconstruction U.S. and African Diaspora history at McGill University, where he holds the William Dawson Chair. A first-generation high-school graduate, he earned a Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. from Yale University in History and African American Studies. He completed his B.A. in history and political science from the University of Toronto (University of St. Michael’s College), from which he also holds an M.A. in political science and ethnic, immigration, and pluralism studies. This event will be held in person and streamed live online. Please RSVP below if you plan to attend. Questions may be directed to canada@berkeley.edu.
This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco & Silicon Valley, and is co-sponsored by the Center for African Studies, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies.
This day-long symposium will kick off a year of events at UC Berkeley to mark the 400 year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in North America. The events are being co-organized by the Haas Institute, the African American studies and history departments, the African American Student Development Center, and the Black Staff & Faculty Organization.
Departments of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies
Race and the Law Summer Minor
The summer minor in Race and the Law is created to develop students’ understanding of the fundamental interconnections between race and the law within and beyond the U.S. Historically, law has been instrumental in codifying racial difference and establishing racial hierarchies. Contemporary conflicts over migration, citizenship, indigenous claims to land, and environmental justice are part of a broader history that demands attention to the role of the law in creating and contesting social power. Course offerings will address these issues to demonstrate why law is an essential component of racialization, and conversely, why it is impossible to understand U.S. legal history without addressing race.
This day-long symposium will kick off a year of events at UC Berkeley to mark the 400 year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in North America. The events are being co-organized by the Haas Institute, the African American studies and history departments, the African American Student Development Center, and the Black Staff & Faculty Organization.