Objectives of the Seminar

Biscayne Bay Campus Florida International University

This multi-disciplinary seminar epitomizes the diasporic and multi-location orientation of Florida International University's African-New World Studies Program (ANWS). ANWS's geographic reach is Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, Europe and Asia; conceptually, it embraces the African diaspora. This seminar will give students the opportunity to reflect intellectually upon the great diversity of black subjectivities and African diaspora communities and experiences. For this course, the best graduate students engaged in African diaspora studies research, the U.S. and in locations abroad, will be selected. Some seats will be reserved for the best FIU applicants. The participants in this course will receive a certificate and may have it recognized for credits in their respective institutions.

This program targets a variety of institutions in the U.S., where graduate studies of the African diaspora are housed. Abroad, we will target a series of institutions in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. The idea is to form a group of students who will represent diverse perspectives on the African diaspora, for each of the three years of the course. The African diaspora is not conceptualized or researched in the same way in its many locations; thus, bringing a diversity of perspectives into the course will enrich class conversations, discussions and debates. The seminars of July 2004, July 2005 and July 2006 are independent of one another. We do not expect to have students who are admitted for one year apply for another year. Written and oral fluency in English are required from all applicants. This seminar is the first project organized by faculty members of what we hope will become an inter-institutional network for African diaspora studies. For the moment, the institutions involved are the African-New World Studies Program at Florida International University, the Department of African American Studies of the University of California at Berkeley, the African and African Diaspora Studies Program at Tulane University, and the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais da Universidade Federal da Bahia em Salvador (Brazil).