Events

Abdulrazak Gurna’s Nobel Prize in Literature: Implications in the African Language Classroom Abdulrazak Gurnah, Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. The selection committee said the prize was “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” Born and raised in Zanzibar, Swahili is his native language. His novels focus on East Africa, yet all are written in English. Three Swahili Language professors explore the implications of his work and Nobel Prize for…

Atmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, 5-6:30 PM PT   At a time when LGBTQ rights are advancing, why are attacks against trans, queer and/or gender-nonconforming people of color increasing? Join us Tuesday, Nov. 2 at 5pm PT / 8 pm ET to hear from a panel of artists, organizers, and academics who will discuss this question and others posed by Eric A. Stanley’s new book Atmospheres of Violence.    Speakers: Angela Y. Davis, Professor Emerita, UC Santa Cruz Courtney Desiree Morris (moderator), Artist and Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley Dean Spade, Professor, Seattle…

The Black Film Ambassador: The Ecstatic World of Albert Johnson   October 30–November 26, 2021 Taking its title from Josslyn Luckett’s Fall 2021 Film Quarterly article, this spotlight series is dedicated to film critic, scholar, curator, and educator Albert Johnson (1925–1998) and is part of our ongoing celebration of five decades of year-round film programming at BAMPFA. A pillar of the Bay Area film scene, Johnson helped to create a thriving local film culture. He was a cofounder of Film Quarterly, a senior lecturer in the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, and program director of the San Francisco International Film Festival from…

Music, the Diaspora, and the World A Conversation with Angélique Kidjo Thursday, Oct 28, 2021 12:00 pm 820 Social Sciences Building and online This event is both in-person at the Social Science Matrix (820 Social Sciences Building) and online. Please register to attend, whether in-person or remotely. One could say that, by definition, music is the most diasporic of art forms. It is movement itself. It is hybridity. It passes from place to place and from time to time, heedless of natural or social borders. Music belongs everywhere, and yet it is always from somewhere. Diasporic themes and histories have been central not only…

Thursday, October 28, 12:30 – 2:00 PM, Pacific Time Online event Register Today  The introduction of the Justice for Black Farmers Act in 2020 and the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act of 2021 was the first time many Americans learned about the historical and ongoing discrimination against farmers of African descent by local farm service agencies and private entities like banks. Yet, it was only the latest chapter in the long saga of anti-Black racism in American farming. Join a panel of legacy farmers, critical race scholars, and a civil rights lawyer to learn about the grave injustices…

The Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley’s 2021-22 Critical Conversations speaker series is organized as a celebration of the life and legacy of June Jordan, a gifted and prolific writer, a powerful activist, an innovative teacher and a longtime member of our Department. Fall 2021 will be devoted to June’s activist work, her prose and her architectural imaginary. Spring 2022 will be devoted to her work as a poet and teacher. Building on our successful Spring 2021 series celebrating Dr. Barbara Christian and exploring the concept of abolition democracy, this series continues to ask: what are the lessons…

Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair.  African American Studies Information Session. Thursday, Oct. 21 from 2-3 p.m. Pacific Time   Register here   Visit the Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair website for more information.