The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion
Panelists
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On Friday morning day two of the conference
began after breakfast with a panel chaired by Josephine
Nhongo-Simbanegavi (center left), Bankhead Fellow in the
Department
of History at the University of Alabama, and including
(left to right): Maboula Soumahoro, Fatima Fanusie, and the
panel's first speaker, Afe Adogame.
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Prof. Jim
Hall, Director of the University of Alabama's New
College, chaired the second panel of the day; Hall, who
obtained his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University
of Iowa, is the author of Mercy,
Mercy Me: African American Culture and the American Sixties.
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Maha Marouan, nearing completion of her Ph.D.
in American/Canadian Studies at the University
of Nottingham, in the UK, is a Moroccan scholar trained
in the study of African American religion and literature;
her presentation examined Toni Morrison's novel Paradise.
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Joining Maha Marouan on Jim Hall's panel were
also (left to right): Prof. Reginnia Williams and Merinda
Simmons Dickens.
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Friday morning ended with Prof. Williams speaking
on the contributions of Robert
Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)--the Canadian-born composer,
pianist, and choral conductor who moved to the US as a child
in 1893--and Merinda Simmons Dickens, a doctoral student at
the University of Alabama's Department
of English, examining the role of female sexuality in
Nella
Larson's (1891-1964) novel, Quicksand.
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After lunch, the conference once again was underway with
a panel featuring, among others, presentations by Dr. Angela
Castaneda, of DePauw
University (and whose Ph.D. is from Indiana University)
and Dr. Christine Ayorinde, of The
Open University in the UK (whose Ph.D. is from the University
of Birmingham, UK).
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Prof. Amilcar
Shabazz (center), Director of the University of Alabama's
African
American Studies Program, which is housed in the Department
of of American Studies, chaired the afternoon's first
panel, which also featured a presentation by Kristine Smith
(far left), who is pursuing her Ph.D. at Howard
University. Prof. Ted
Trost (center, back to the camera) chaired the conference's
organizing committee.
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The final panel of the day was chaired by
Prof.
Jennifer Purvis, of Women's
Studies at the University of Alabama. The panelists were
(left to right): Matt Waggoner (Albertus
Magnus College), Prof. Kelly Hayes (Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis), and Dr. Jonathon
Kahn (Columbia
University).
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Once again, John McGaugh, of the University
of Alabama's Supply Store (left) staffed a book display table,
here attracting the attention of (middle left to right): Angela
Castaneda, Matt Waggoner, and Maboula Soumahoro.
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During the Friday evening reception after Prof. Moses's
lecture: Dr. Jonathon
Kahn, who studied earlier in his career with Prof. Eddie
Glaude and who is currently a member of the Society
of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University,
and Prof. Kelly
Hayes, whose Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago
and whose fieldwork on the African diaspora regularly takes
her to Brazil.
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Angela
Castaneda, who is finishing a postdoctoral fellowship
in DePauw University's Department
of Sociology and Anthropology, and Matt Waggoner, who
is in the final stages of completing his dissertation in History
of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz.
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During a break Friday evening: Christine Ayorinde
(left), author of Afro-Cuban
Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity,
and Maha Marouan, both arrived in Tuscaloosa from the UK a
day early (during a stormy Alabama evening), just in time
to visit the University of Alabama's International Tax Specialist
to sign forms (and more forms).
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Maboula Soumahoro (left), who also arrived a day early
(from France, also just in time to sign a few international
tax forms of her own) speaks during Friday evening's reception
with Profs. Ted Trost (center) and Eddie Glaude.
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Although organized and primarily sponsored by the Department
of Religious Studies, the conference was supported by twelve
other units on the campus--notably the College of Arts and
Sciences and the Office of Academic Affairs. We are therefore
grateful to Dean Robert
Olin and Provost Judy
Bonner for their support. A full list of co-sponsors
is available here.
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Photos thanks to Samantha Sastre and Christine
Scott
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