The University will celebrate African American studies at Yale with a reunion of the department's graduates and a major conference exploring the past and future of the field, among other topics.
The celebration, sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Tercentennial Office, will take place Friday-Sunday, Sept. 14-16. The event is being coordinated by the Association of Yale Alumni.
Titled "African American Studies and Yale: Revisiting Origins, Imagining Futures," the conference will bring together the founders, alumni and friends of African American studies at Yale who have set its course over more than 30 years.
Yale inaugurated its African American Studies Program -- the first undergraduate degree-granting program of its kind in the Ivy League -- in 1969. In 1978, the program became the first in the United States to offer master's degrees, and in 1994, Ph.D. degrees were offered jointly with other departments and programs at Yale. African American studies became a full academic department in 2000.
A highlight of the conference will be a Tercentennial Lecture on the topic "Racisms, Past and Present" by noted cultural theorist Stuart Hall, emeritus professor of sociology at the Open University (United Kingdom). It will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. The public is welcome to attend the free event.
Hall is known for pioneering the field of cultural studies. Born in Jamaica, he left the island in 1951 as a Rhodes Scholar to attend Oxford University. He was editor of the New Left Review and served as director of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University before joining the faculty of the Open University in 1979. His writings examine aspects of popular culture, Marxist theory, racial formations and the construction of diasporic identities. Among his books are "The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left" and "Modernity and Its Futures."
Three panels will be offered as part of the conference. These are open to all members of the Yale community and reunion participants.
The first, on Friday at 4:15 p.m., is titled "The Founders of African American Studies at Yale: Revisiting Origins" and features a discussion among some of the individuals who helped launch the program and some of its graduates. Among the former is Roy S. Bryce-Laporte, the first director of the program and a 1985 graduate of Yale Law School.
On Saturday at 9 a.m., early and more recent graduates of African American studies at Yale will discuss the theme "1968/2001: Are We Still Radicals?" The final panel, at 10:45 a.m., is titled "A New Century: Imagining Futures" and will feature more recent graduates of the program.
Among the Yale participants are professors Hazel Carby, Cathy Cohn, Robert Dahl, Robert Stepto and Wendell Bell, and graduate student Leigh Raiford.
"African American Studies and Yale: Revisiting Origins, Imagining Futures" coincides with the birthday of alumnus Edward A. Bouchet, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in the United States. He received his doctorate from Yale in physics in 1876, two years after graduating from Yale College.
While all panel sessions and talks are free to Yale affiliates, students in African American studies who are interested in attending reunion meals and receptions are asked to pre-register (there is a $15 fee). Those in other fields who wish to attend these events should contact Julia Downs at (203) 432-1942.
For more information on reunion and conference events, see www.aya.yale.edu/grad/afram/public.htm.
T H I S
Bulletin Home
Other events
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale to greet new crop of students
Over half of new foreign students got financial aid
Programs pay tribute to Yale abolitionist
Stern, González Echevarría named DeVane Professors
Discovery may yield insights into treating high blood pressure
Hockfield is appointed Gilbert Professor
Brewer returns to Yale as Weyerhaeuser Professor
African American studies celebrates 30th year
Symposium will explore 'Challenges to Internationalizing Yale'
IN FOCUS: Yale ArchitectureFall DeVane Lectures to explore Yale's contributions to modern architecture
Alumni architects highlighted in 'New Blue'
While You Were Away: The Summer's Top Stories Revisited
Art Gallery exhibit combines the visual and literary
Ethnic cleansing in Europe and America is focus of Lamar Center's weekend symposium
'Symmetry and Asymmetry' is topic of Tetelman Lecture
Fair to highlight resources for those with disabilities
School of Music celebrates new year with concert, convocation
New Yale Library website unveiled
C. Norman Gillis, noted vascular disease specialist, dies
The Great Outdoors
Pictures and poems sought for contests at Morse College
|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News|Bulletin Board
Yale Scoreboard|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs Home|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page