UMASS HOSTS LECTURES AND SEMINARS ON

 BLACK EUROPEANS AND “RACE” IN EUROPE

Contact:  Prof. Sara Lennox, (413) 545-2350, lennox@german.umass.edu or Prof. Jonathan Skolnik, jskolnik@german.umass.edu

In 2008-2009, UMass Amherst will sponsor a W.E.B. DuBois Lecture Series entitled “Race and the New Europe: Black Europeans.” Supported by the Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts’ “Visioning” program and co-sponsored by many departments and programs from the Five Colleges, six experts on questions on “race” in contemporary France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden will visit our campus over the course of the year to give a public lecture, conduct a seminar with faculty and graduate students, and conduct a class for undergraduates. The poster, with more detailed information on the speakers, may be viewed here: http://www.umass.edu/german/publications/documents/BEPoster.reduced.pdf

The first speaker, Prof. Michelle Wright of the University of Minnesota, will visit Amherst on September 25, 2008. Prof. Wright, author of Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora, will present a talk on “The Physics of Blackness: Reconsidering the African Diaspora in the Postwar Era” at 4 p.m. in 101 Campus Center, UMass Amherst. The lecture is free and open to public. To register for the discussion seminar, which convenes at 7:30 p.m. in 174-76 Campus Center, faculty and graduate students should contact Prof. Lennox (lennox@german.umass.edu).

The W.E.B. DuBois Lecture Series pays tribute to DuBois, a pioneering theorist of the transnational dimensions of “race” issues, by examining the complex histories and identities of Blacks within contemporary European cultures and societies.

The series is organized by Prof. Sara Lennox and Prof. Jonathan Skolnik, from the Program in German and Scandinavian Studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Undergraduates from the Five Colleges may register for LLC 296, a one-credit course which includes discussion seminars with Prof. Wright and the other visiting speakers. Interested students should contact the instructors, Allia Matta (amatta@afroam.umass.edu) and McKinley Melton (mmelton@afroam.umass.edu). It is not too late to join this unique course!

The schedule for the rest of the series:

Peggy Piesche, Vassar College
October 21, 2008
4-5:30 p.m.
911-15 Campus Center, UMass Amherst

Utz McKnight, University of Alabama
November 13, 2008
4-5:30 p.m.
174-76 Campus Center, UMass Amherst

Dominic Thomas, UCLA
February 5, 2009
4-5:30 p.m.
Campus Center room TBA, UMass Amherst

Kesha Fikes, University of Chicago
March 5, 2009
Campus Center room TBA, UMass Amherst

Donald Carter, Hamilton College
April 6, 2009
Campus Center room TBA, UMass Amherst