Organized by the African Studies Center and presented by UC Multi-campus Research Group on New Approaches to Black Atlantic Religions and University of California Office of the President Multi-campus Research Programs & Initiative Funding (MRPI)

Date: Saturday, October 27, 2018

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Location: 10383 Bunche Hall

Program: http://www.international.ucla.edu/asc/event/13430

The conference is free and open to the public; RSVP requested by emailing Sheila Breeding, African Studies Center, at sbreeding@international.ucla.edu.

Free and open to the public!

This multidisciplinary group composed of faculty from multiple UC campuses will critically assess the current state of scholarship on Black Atlantic belief systems and theorize new methodologies and analytic orientations for comparative and regional studies. Our objective is to expand UC’s historical role as a hub for the study of Black Atlantic religions by fostering dialogue and collaboration amongst a new generation of scholars. We will explore where new research is needed, ways to develop new methods, what new theoretical paradigms are available, and carefully consider how we as scholars can contribute to the anti-racist struggles of the peoples of the Black Atlantic world.

Participants include Jeffrey Kahn (UC Davis), Rachel O’Toole (UC Irvine), Roberto Strongman, Elizabeth Pérez and Claudine Michel (UC Santa Barbara), Jeroen Dewulf (UC Berkeley), and Patrick A. Polk, Lauren Derby, Katherine Smith and Andrew Apter (UCLA).

Outside speakers include Brendan Jamal Thornton from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill whose book on Pentecostalism and masculinity in the Dominican Republic won the Caribbean Studies award for best book in the humanities.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS by YANIQUE HUME

“Dancing for the Dead and the Living: Embodiment and Invocation in Caribbean Mortuary Praxis”

Yanique Hume is a Professor, professional dancer, choreographer, and writer based at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Barbados.

Co-sponsored by:

• Center for the Study of Women
• Patricia Turner, Dean and Vice Provost, Division of Undergraduate Education
• Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance
• Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies
• Center for the Study of Religion
• Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History
• Fowler Museum
• Atlantic History Cluster
• UCL