What role does embodiment play in the making of religious selves, communities, and others, for those in Africa and its diasporas? How are embodied religious practices immersed in broader concerns of inter-relational ethics and socially transformative struggles for power? Embodiment and Relationality in Religions of Africa and its Diasporas is a symposium that seeks to answer these questions and more while bringing diverse religious traditions, from Pentecostalism to Islam, to the worship of Òrìsàs, and various regions of the Pan-African world, from the African continent, to Europe, to Latin America and the Caribbean, into conversation with one another. A small group of selected scholars from across the country will meet to present papers related to the symposium theme. A different keynote lecture will also be given on each day of the symposium to highlight multiple dimensions of embodiment and relationality. These keynote lectures are free and open to the public.
Schedule for Thursday, April 20th @ 630 William Pitt Union:
Pre-keynote Reception
5:00 – 6:00 PM
Welcome
6:00 – 6:15 PM
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Stephanie Mitchem (University of South Carolina): “The Embodied Power of Sankofa”
View the flyer here.
6:15 – 7:30 PM
Q&A from 7:15 – 7:30 PM
Schedule for Friday, April 21st @ 114 O’Hara Student Center:
Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 AM
Introductions
9:00 – 9:10 AM
Panel Session 1: Community, Religious Habitus and the Senses
9:10 – 11:00 AM
Bertin Louis - “Habitus in Haitian Protestant Church in the Bahamas”
Rachel Cantave – “Sensing Faith: Religious Influence and Faith-Based Community Service in Bahia”
Discussant: Brock Bahler
Panel Session 2: Interrogating Sacredness in Performance
11:00 AM – 12:45 PM
Aaron Montoya – “Going Beyond Dance, Going Beyond the Sacred: Dance and Resistance in Mozambique”
Camee Maddox-Wingfield – “Authenticating Spiritual Continuity in a Secular Dance Community: Bele’s Rebirth in Contemporary Martinique”
Jeanette Jouili - “Performing the Islamic Black Atlantic: Afro-Diasporic Muslim Hip-Hop Artists, Embodied Ethics, and the Redefinition of British Islam.”
Discussant: Oronde Sharif
Lunch
12:45 – 1:45 PM
Panel Session 3: Gender, Sexuality, Healing and Death
1:45 – 3:45 PM
Nathanael Homewood – “Wrestling with Homosexuality: Affect and Movement in Charismatic Deliverance”
Yolanda Covington – “Exceptional Healing: Gender, Embodiment, and Prophetism in the Lower Congo”
Casey Golomski – “The Density of Contagion: Death Pollution in Southeastern Africa”
Discussant: Mari Webel
Walk to 630 William Pitt Union
3:45 – 4:00 PM
Schedule for Friday, April 21st @ 630 William Pitt Union:
Pre-keynote Reception
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Rudolph Ware (University of Michigan): “Seeing into the Unseen: Embodied Knowledge & Disembodied Spirits in Islamic West Africa”
View the flyer here.
5:00 – 6:30 PM
Q&A from 6:15 – 6:30 PM
Schedule for Saturday, April 22nd @ Humanities Center, 602 Cathedral of Learning:
Breakfast
8:00 – 9:00 AM
Panel Session 4: Spiritual Memories and Ancestors
9:00 – 11:00 AM
Elyan Hill – “Spirited Choreographies: Histories of the Slave Trade in Black Atlantic Literature and Ritual Performances in Togo”
Youssef Carter – “Alchemy of the Fuqara: Embodiment, Reversion, and Spiritual Care in a Transatlantic Sufi Order”
Fadeke Castor – “Our Collective Ancestors: Spiritual Ethnicity in Ifá Devotion across the Americas”
Discussant: to be announced
Break Out Sessions
11:00 – 12:45 PM
Lunch
12:45 – 1:45 PM
Walk to 501 Cathedral of Learning
1:45 – 2:00 PM
Schedule for Saturday, April 22nd @ 501 Cathedral of Learning:
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Jacob Olupona (Harvard University Divinity School): “Embodiment, Relationality, and Materiality in African Religion and the African Diaspora Traditions”
View the flyer here.
2:00 – 3:30 PM
Q&A from 3:15 – 3:30 PM
Post-keynote Reception
3:30 – 4:15 PM