“Comparative Blackness”: Black Presences and Representations in the
Americas

Seminar Organizers: Brian Russell Roberts, The University of Virginia,
Emron Esplin, Michigan State University

This seminar seeks to explore literary and cultural representations of
blackness in the US and throughout the Western hemisphere. We are
especially interested in essays that trace how various depictions of
blackness interact within and across ethnic, racial, linguistic, and
national lines. We hope to examine the creations and contingencies--the
arrivals and departures--of blackness within the American hemisphere to
gain a greater view of how a range of American identities rely upon
and/or react against blackness for self-definition. Proposals may address
representations of blackness in literature, religion, political rhetoric,
law, film, music, sports, the news, etc.

Possible questions of interest include:

How have literature, film, music, etc., embraced by dominant national
populations relied upon blackness to forge national identities?

In what instances has blackness been erased or hypostatized--by what
mechanisms and in the service of what interests?

How has international movement--by independent travelers or under
governmental auspices--disrupted or affected varying traditions of
interpreting (comparatively) darker skin tones?

How have white supremacist ideologies emerged from and/or acted as
catalysts for various movements that embrace blackness within the Western
hemisphere?

How have groups associated with blackness interacted with other minority
identities in the Americas? How, when, and why have minority groups
forged and broken aesthetic, social, or political alliances?

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Received on Tue Oct 02 2007 - 11:45:20 EDT