African Diaspora Religions Unit
New Voices in African Diaspora Scholarship and Practice—June Virtual
A lightning talk session by a cadre of young voices, scholars with new research initiatives, and folks with accessibility needs. Preference will be given to parties from the global south who might not be able to attend in November in-person conference. We invite artists, public scholars, and academics engaged in either theoretical or applied practices related to African Diaspora religions. We aspire to nurture new ideas and voices in their process of evolving and expanding their work. Once the lineup has been selected, the papers will be shared with the co-panelists in advance. Following the dissemination of a brief individual summary or theoretical statement, each participant will provide comments to one of their colleagues. After the presentations and initial round of comments, the audience will be invited to provide more extensive Q&A about any of the papers. The ADR chair will help to keep time and provide a closing statement.
The African Diaspora Religions Unit aims to engage a wide range of disciplines and a variety of scholars who work on different aspects of African Diaspora religions. It considers the linguistic and cultural complexities of the African Diaspora, the importance of African traditional religions, Afro-Christianity, Afro-Islam, Afro-Asia, and Afro-Judaism, in the way they have and continue to inform an understanding of Africa, and also the way they have and continue to shape the religious landscape of the Americas, Europe, Asia and South Asia.
Our unit explores broad geographies, histories, and cultures of people of African descent and the way they shape the religious landscape, in the Caribbean and the Americas, Europe, and Asia. We define “Diaspora” as the spread and dispersal of people of African descent — both forced and voluntary — through the slave trade, imperial and colonial displacements, and postcolonial migrations. This Unit emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and confluent/convergent [spiritual] belief systems which is central to its vision.