Critical Conversations Speaker Series 2021

Black Feminist Geographies of Emancipation   Register here   The Department of African American Studies invites you to join us to discuss how black communities have navigated their everyday lives through practices of space-making and survival, resistance and refusal, in the context of antiblackness, gentrification and neoliberal multiculturalism. This conversation will also explore what black feminism offers for understanding these complex practices and ultimately toward the goal of emancipation. This event is part of our Critical Conversations Series that focuses on abolition democracy and will feature the authors of two new breathtaking ethnographies, Savannah Shange, author of Progressive Dystopia: Abolition,…

Register This event, part of a series on abolition democracy, features editors and contributors to Kaepernick Publishing’s groundbreaking online publication, “Abolition for the People,” a project produced by Kaepernick Publishing in partnership with LEVEL. In conversation with Nikki Jones and Gabriel Regalado, Berkeley alumni Ameer Loggins, Christopher Petrella, and Connie Wun, and prominent abolitionist Mariame Kaba, author of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us (edited by Tamara K. Nopper), will discuss how Black Studies encourages us to embrace abolition – not reform – as a response to police violence and what abolition means as a political project and practice.     …

“If we don’t take a full accounting of these debts that are owed, then we are going to keep paying it. Holding the weight of that individually and collectively is just too much. The solution can’t be just incremental reform.” – Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff On behalf of The Department of African American Studies, we invite you to join us for a conversation about police abolition. This event, part of a series on this topic, will feature two of the leading scholars in conversations on police reform and the enduring legacies of racial violence. In conversation with Nikki Jones, Professors Phillip…

Register Here Black Feminism and the Sonic Archive The third in our series celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Barbara T. Christian features two of her former students sharing their groundbreaking work on Black sound, Black archives and Black feminist thought. Speakers: Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, American Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Music at Yale University. She is the author of Bodies in Dissent:  Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910, winner of The Errol Hill Award for Outstanding Scholarship on African American Performance from ASTR; Jeff Buckley’s…

Register for Event The Spring 2021 Critical Conversations series is organized around two themes: celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Barbara T. Christian, an architect of Black feminist criticism, a founding member of our Department and a gifted writer and teacher; and exploring the concept of “abolition democracy,” thinking creatively and collaboratively about the practice of abolition as necessary to building life-affirming institutions and robust democratic structures. Through both themes, we ask: what are the lessons of the Black Feminist, Black Radical, and Black intellectual traditions for our moment and what is the role of Black Studies in building…

View the recorded discussion here

Critical Conversations Spring 2021 series is organized around two themes:  celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Barbara T. Christian, an architect of Black feminist criticism, a founding member of our Department and a gifted writer and teacher; and exploring the concept of “abolition democracy,” thinking creatively and collaboratively about the practice of abolition as necessary to building life-affirming institutions and robust democratic structures. Through both themes, we ask: what are the lessons of the Black Feminist, Black Radical, and Black intellectual traditions for our moment and what is the role of Black Studies in building more just futures?  Register…