Work-In-Progress Seminar

The Frederick Douglass Institute’s Work in Progress Seminar Series is a multi-disciplinary seminar touching upon Africa and its Diaspora. The seminars offer an engaging environment wherein graduate students and faculty working in the broad area of African and African-American Studies present and discuss on their ongoing research.

Spring 2012

Cara Jones,
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Political Science and African Studies, U. of Florida,
Visiting Diversity Dissertation Year Fellow U. of Rochester, Dept. of Political Science

"Giving up the Gun:
Rebel to State Transformation in Burundi"

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
12:30-1:30pm
Hawkins-Carlson Room (Rush Rhess Library)

For a copy of Cara’s paper please send e-mail request to fdi@mail.rochester.edu

Fall 2011

Wednesday. November 30, 2011
12:30-2:00pm
Welles-Brown Room
Edward M. Puchner, Frederick Douglass Institute Predoctoral Fellow
"A Tried Stone': Community, Conversion, and Christ in the Sculpture of William Edmondson"

Wednesday. September 28, 2011
12:30-2:00pm
Welles-Brown Room
Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
"Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

past events

2011-2012

Wednesday. September 28, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow "Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

2010-2011

Spring 2011

Tues. April 14, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Eldred Chimowitz, Dept. Engineering "Between the Menorah and the Fever Tree" more A bildungsroman set in Southern Africa, 'Between the Menorah and the Fever Tree' depicts the Jewish-African experience tracing the story of its protagonist 'Chungle' from boyhood in 1950s Rhodesia to youth in 1960s South Africa during the Apartheid era, and finally to America. Alternately uproarious and touching Chimowitz's first novel sets a story of family, friendship and identity against a backdrop of political and cultural upheaval. '...a story told with understated beauty and uncompromising honesty...'- Allen Peacock, editor of the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Good Scent from A Strange Mountain '...poignant, witty, evocative-a sepia image out of the African colonies brought to life. It transported me back to a time of innocence shot through with shards of anger and fear...' -Mark J. Kaplan, Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. A copy of book excepts can be requested via e-mail or is available in the institute. Sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute for African & African-American Studies. ADMISSION: Free and open to the public, refreshment will be served.

Thursday, January 27, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Kwame Adum Kyeremeh "The Fall Of An African Giant- Asante: Causes and the Response of the Nobodies"

Fall 2010

Thursday, October 7, 2010 12:30-2:00pm, Hawkins-Carlson Seminar Room Sharon Willis, Art & Art History Department, UR "Keepin It "Real": Media Memory in Kasi Lemmons's TALK TO ME"

Thursday, December 1, 2010 12:30-2:00pm, Welles-Brown Room Habtamu Tegnene, FDI Predoctoral Fellow "Lords and Zegoc: Ethiopian Serfdom, c. 1700-1900"

2009-2010

Spring 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:30-2:00pm, Hawkins Carlson Seminar Room GerShun Avilez, FDI Postdoctoral Fellow, U. of Penn.(English) "Spirit Talk: Henry Dumas and the Black Arts (Trans)Nationalist Impulse"
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 12:30-2:00pm, Hawkins Carlson Seminar Room Daniel J. Broyld, PhD student, Howard University (History) "In Search of Political Agendy: Blacks in Rochester, New York and St. Catharines, Ontario, 1850-1860"

Fall 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Eldred Chimowitz, Chemical Engineering
The Menorah and the Fever Tree, Coming-of-age in Colonial Southern Africa: An Autobiographical Novel
12:30 PM, Hawkins Carlson Seminar Room (RRL)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Karen Martino, Program of Movement & Dance
Cultural UPheaval
12:30 PM, Hawkins Carlson Reading Room (RRL)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Johanna Almiron, FDI Pre-Doctoral Fellow
Defacement: Portraits of Racial violence in the Age of Graffiti by Jean-Michel Basquiat
12:30 PM, Hawkins Carlson Seminar Room (RRL)

Refreshments will be served.

Work-In-Progress Seminar

Spring 2012

Fall 2011

Wednesday. November 30, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Welles-Brown Room Edward M. Puchner, Frederick Douglass Institute Predoctoral Fellow "A Tried Stone': Community, Conversion, and Christ in the Sculpture of William Edmondson"

Wednesday. September 28, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Welles-Brown Room Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow "Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

Wednesday. September 28, 2011 12:30-2:00pm Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow "Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

A copy of book excepts can be requested via e-mail or is available in the institute.

Sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute for African & African-American Studies. ADMISSION: Free and open to the public, refreshment will be served.

Wednesday. November 30, 2011
12:30-2:00pm
Welles-Brown Room
Edward M. Puchner, Frederick Douglass Institute Predoctoral Fellow
"A Tried Stone': Community, Conversion, and Christ in the Sculpture of William Edmondson"

Wednesday. September 28, 2011
12:30-2:00pm
Welles-Brown Room
Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
"Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

Wednesday. September 28, 2011
12:30-2:00pm
Takkara Brunson, Frederick Douglass Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
"Photography and the Production of Afro-Cuban Womanhood, 1900-1920's"

Sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute for African & African-American Studies.

ADMISSION: Free and open to the public, refreshment will be served.