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Harvard Du Bois Institute

The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University is the nation's oldest research center dedicated to the study of the history, culture, and social institutions of Africans and African Americans. Founded in 1975, the Institute serves as the site for research projects, fellowships for emerging and established scholars, publications, conferences, and working groups. Named after the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895), the Du Bois Institute also sponsors four major lecture series each year and serves as the co-sponsor for numerous public conferences, lectures, readings, and forums.break

http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/

Age of Revolution: Race, Citizenship, and National Identity

Wed, Nov 10, 2004

Gary Nash discusses race, citizenship, and national identity.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Beyond Mortal Vision: Harriet Wilson

Fri, Mar 18, 2005

P. Gabrielle Foreman, associate professor of English and American studies at Occidental College; and Reginald H. Pitts, an historical researcher and genealogical consultant, offer groundbreaking information about Harriet Wilson from their Introduction to the 2005 Penguin Classics edition of Wilson's 1859 *Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of A Free Black*. Wilson was thought to have disappeared from the historical record not long after her novel was published. However, through their scholarly research work, Foreman and Pitts have learned that Wilson lived for almost 40 more years.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Re-Membering Africa: Retrieval and Exchange of African Memory

Wed, Mar 15, 2006

Ngugi wa Thiong'o explores the resistance of African memory to European capitalist modernity's attempts to bury it under Europhonism. The resurrection of African memory is seen as part and parcel of the African renaissance and Afro-modernity. In all three lectures, he draws on the experiences of other cultures, the European Renaissance and the Irish Experience particularly, to draw parallels, comparisons and contrasts. In this lecture, wa Thiong'o looks at remembering political, intellectual and literary visions like Pan-Africanism and the practices of African writing, and examines their limitation in their relationship to the African linguistic means of memory. This lecture is a part of a series of lectures called Re-Membering Africa: Burial and Resurrection of African Memory.

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Re-Membering Africa: Planting European Memory on Africa

Tue, Mar 14, 2006

Ngugi wa Thiong'o explores the resistance of African memory to European capitalist modernity's attempts to bury it under Europhonism. The resurrection of African memory is seen as part and parcel of the African renaissance and Afro-modernity. In all three lectures, he draws on the experiences of other cultures, the European Renaissance and the Irish Experience particularly, to draw parallels, comparisons and contrasts. In this lecture, Ng_g_ wa Thiong'o talks of the historical, economic, political and psycho-cultural fragmentation of the continent by slavery and colonialism, arguing that the search for wholeness is the animating force in the continental and Diasporan-African (contiafrican and Diafrican) struggles. This lecture is a part of a series of lectures called Re-Membering Africa: Burial and Resurrection of African Memory.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Re-Membering Africa: Memory, Restoration and African Renaissance

Thu, Mar 16, 2006

Ngugi wa Thiong'o explores the resistance of African memory to European capitalist modernity's attempts to bury it under Europhonism. The resurrection of African memory is seen as part and parcel of the African renaissance and Afro-modernity. In all three lectures, he draws on the experiences of other cultures, the European Renaissance and the Irish Experience particularly, to draw parallels, comparisons and contrasts. Here, Ngugi looks at the much talked about African Renaissance arguing that the economic, political and cultural re-membering of Africa is the real basis for the flowering of the African Renaissance. The reconnection with African memory and its means of being is seen as crucial. In short, the resurrection of African memory is seen as necessary for the African renaissance. This lecture is a part of a series of lectures called Re-Membering Africa: Burial and Resurrection of African Memory.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Tour of Duty: How to Write About Africa

Tue, Feb 28, 2006

Michael Vazquez of Transition Magazine hosts an evening with the next generation of African and African American writers. Cosponsored by Transition Magazine, Granta and the Virginia Quarterly Review.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Mental Health Awareness in the Black Community I

Wed, Mar 22, 2006

Inform Your Mind, Fuel Your Spirit is a panel discussion about mental health awareness in the black community moderated by Terrie Williams author of *A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues*. Williams is also founder of The Terrie Williams Agency and The Stay Strong Foundation. Williams is joined by Alvin F. Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and author of *Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans*; Altha J. Stewart, president of the American Psychiatric Foundation and former president of Black Psychiatrists of America; Rhonda Ross, a writer, vocalist, and Emmy-nominated actress; and Tracy Tyrone Moore, the president of the Black Men's Forum at Harvard University.

Mental Health Month

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Mental Health Awareness in the Black Community II

Wed, Mar 22, 2006

Terrie Williams leads a panel discussion about mental health awareness in the black community. Panelists include Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and author of Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans; Dr. Altha J. Stewart, president of the American Psychiatric Foundation and former president of Black Psychiatrists of America; Rhonda Ross, a writer, vocalist, and Emmy nominated actress; and Tracy Tyrone Moore, the president of the Black Men's Forum at Harvard University.

Mental Health Month

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Harvard Du Bois Institute
Truth vs. Style: Challenge of Valaida Snow

Wed, Oct 5, 2005

Candace Allen discusses her first novel, *Valaida*, based on the life of entertainer and jazz trumpeter Valaida Snow.

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Nobel Laureates Honor Wole Soyinka

Wed, Apr 27, 2005

Toni Morrison and other Nobel Laureates read in honor of the 70th birthday of literary giant and human rights activist Wole Soyinka. Wole Soyinka, born near Ibadan, Nigeria, is world renowned for his numerous dramatic works, novels, essays, and poems. Known for his outspoken criticism of the Nigerian government, especially during its civil war, Soyinka appealed in an article for a cease-fire between opposition groups and the government. As a result, he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until 1969. Currently, the first Alphonse Fletcher Fellow at Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Soyinka received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 and participated in the evening's festivities by reading from his own imaginative and groundbreaking work. Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of the Du Bois Institute, the event features some of the world's literary masters reading from their work. In addition, A Season of Laureates includes individual introductions by Homi F. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenburg Professor of English and Literature, Harvard University; novelist Jamaica Kincaid, Visiting Lecturer on African and African American Studies and Literature, Harvard University; K. Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University; and Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Cosponsored with the Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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Harvard Du Bois Institute