As Toni Morrison notes in Playing in the Dark, the construction of Africanist ideologies that misread and/or misrepresent Black identities is as American as apple pie. The white gaze has historically and contemporaneously controlled what is known and unknown about African Americans, just as the ingestion of Africanist ideologies has shaped how many people of the African diaspora see themselves. However, the cultural productions of African American people have frequently not only asserted the heterogeneity of African American communities, contesting Africanist collectivization, but have also affirmed ways of knowing beyond the cultural and systemic erasure of Black personhood and agency. From African American literature that challenges propagandistic and limiting portrayals of Black personhood, to Black music that illuminates the intersection of economic, racial, and cultural oppression, to social media (especially Black Twitter) which powerfully dissects popular culture and political realities, African Americans have created and challenged cultural productions as a means of resistance. This interdisciplinary panel invites papers that acknowledge and explore how African American authors, artists, creators, and commentators confront the ways in which Black cultural productions are policed and delegitimized and create cultural productions that demonstrate knowledge that transcends Africanism and the racial caste system.

Please submit 200–300-word abstracts and 50–100-word bios to LaRonda Sanders-Senu at laronda.sanderssenu@mga.edu by August 20, 2025. Please include SAMLA 2025 in the subject line. SAMLA will take place in Wyndham Atlanta Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center, November 6-8, 2025.