Instead of the traditional panel format, Afro-Latinidades: Blackness, Identity, and Space will be in conversation format through grouped collectives. The four collectives—geographies of Afro-Latinidades, Community and Family, Immigration and Deportation in Afro-Latinx Communities, and Afro-Latinx Futures and Possibilities—are made up of two to three people with a range of experiences, expertise, and approaches in Afro-Latinx communities.
8:00 – 8:45 AM: Breakfast
8:45 – 9:00 AM: Welcome by Prof. Frances R. Aparicio, Director of Latinx Studies
9:00 – 10:30 AM: GEOGRAPHIES OF AFRO-LATINIDADES
Moderator: Ashley Ngozi Agbasoga | Doctoral Student in the Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University
Presenters
Zaire Dinzey-Flores, Associate Professor | Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, Department of Sociology. Rutgers
Jennifer Jones, Assistant Professor | Faculty Fellow, Institute of Latino Studies Faculty, Department of Sociology. University of Notre Dame
Geography is an emerging analytic to examine how race—particularly within and around Afro-Latinx communities—is articulated through landscape and space. Zaire Dinzey-Flores and Jennifer Jones will lead the symposium with an interdisciplinary conversation that spans across the United States among multiple Afro-Latinx communities.
10:30 – 10:45 AM: BREAK
10:45 – 12:15 PM: IMMIGRATION AND CRIMINALIZATION IN AFRO-LATINX COMMUNITIES
Moderator: Myrna Garcia |Assistant Professor of Instruction, Latina and Latino Studies, Northwestern University
Presenters
David Brotherton, Professor | Department of Sociology. John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Alan Pelaez López, Poet | Visual Artist, The Department of Ethnic Studies. University of California, Berkeley
Although Black immigrants comprise about seven percent of the overall immigrant population in the United States, they are deported at much higher rates. With the rise of organizations and groups focusing on communities from the Black/African Diaspora, a conversation on the intersections of (im)migration, state violence, and blackness is timely.
12:15 – 1:30 PM: Lunch on your own
1:30 – 3:30 PM: COMMUNITY AND FAMILY
Moderator: Elvia Mendoza | Visiting Assistant Professor / Director of Undergraduate Studies, Latina and Latino Studies, Northwestern University
Presenters
Katie Acosta, Associate Professor | Sociology, Center for Latin American & Latino/a Studies. Georgia State University
Carmen Mojica, Certified Professional Midwife, Reproductive Justice Activist & Educator
Our third collective of the day will focus on community and family making in its many manifestations in Afro-Latinx communities. Perspectives that could often be missed in traditional studies of the family—experiences of LGBTQ individuals and collectives, maternal and infant health for Afro-Latinas, and everyday life for those who live with Black and Latinx identities will be highlighted.
3:30 – 4:00 PM: BREAK
4:00 – 5:30PM: AFRO-LATINX FUTURES AND POSSIBILITIES
Moderator: John Alba Cutler |Associate Professor of English; Associate Chair of the Department of English, Northwestern University
Presenters
Dixa Ramírez, Assistant Professor | American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Director of Undergraduate Studies. Yale University
Ariana Brown, Poet | MFA in progress. University of Pittsburgh
Our day-long symposium will end with a conversation concerning the possibilities of Afro-Latinx scholarship, literature, and futures. Speaking to the aforementioned questions presented by the symposium, our two speakers will bring a dialogue concerning what Afro-Latinidad could offer as a decolonizing project.
5:30 PM: Closing: Our day-long symposium will end with a conversation concerning the possibilities of Afro-Latinx scholarship, literature, and futures. Speaking to the aforementioned questions presented by the symposium, our two speakers will bring a dialogue concerning what Afro-Latinidad could offer as a decolonizing project.