Northwestern students, faculty and staff are invited to participate in a visioning session for Critical African Heritages, a new Kaplan Workshop, taking place on November 12 at Kresge 2-315. A summary of the days program is as follows:
9:30am –10:00am – Welcome and goals
10:00am – 12:00pm – What are the urgent concerns and debates within African heritage today?
12:00pm – 2:00pm: Moving forward: Graduate student lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm – Moving forward: Faculty and staff session
The production of African heritage has long been a deeply fraught act, influenced by geopolitics, racism, and Western intellectual frameworks that dictate whose histories, voices, and forms of knowledge are most prominent. Insular forms of knowledge production in American universities, including Northwestern, have contributed to these divides.
Critical African Heritages (CAH} is a three-year Kaplan research workshop intended to build deeper connections among Northwestern and regional peers, and to think together about how we can build sustainable collaborations across fields, institutions, and international boundaries. Our goal is to provide a space for generative, open-ended conversation that transcends categories such as intangible and tangible heritage, the bifurcation of Africa and its diasporas, and disciplinary silos.