Windows from the Present to the Past:
Africa and the African Diaspora

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Howard University invites you to the 2010 Departmental Conference in celebration of Black History Month. This year’s conference is entitled “Windows from the Present to the Past: The Archaeology of Africa and the African Diaspora”. It will be held from February 25-27, 2010 on the Howard University campus in Washington, D.C.

The conference will focus on the archaeology of Africans, African Americans, and people of African descent throughout the rest of the Diaspora. This conference is designed to look at the struggles and triumphs of people of African descent, as well as the practice of archaeological scholarship focused on Africa and the African Diaspora. The goal of this conference is to encourage people who work in Africa and throughout the Diaspora to share their research with the public and discuss new solutions to shared challenges. Many of the leading scholars in the field as well as promising new archaeologists will present their research. We hope to inspire exciting new discussions between experts in the field, students, and the community. The goal is to encourage more people to see the benefits of archaeology and recognize the importance of this particular past in American history.

Please join us for what promises to be an exciting conference. We encourage public participation and hope that you will gain inspiration from the variety of presentations. Your participation will be a great contribution. There is a small registration fee for this conference. We are accepting registration forms now and will continue to accept them until the conference is full. The details are listed on the registration form.

This conference is made possible by the generous support of the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean.

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Themes

Presentations during the conference will address the following themes:

1. Increasing dialogue between archaeologists who work in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora
2. Working with communities, the public, and students
3. Overcoming the challenges of reconstructing a more representative past
4. Diversity in practice; Recruiting scholars of diverse backgrounds
5. New approaches to race, ethnicity, and identity
6. Looking at how people adapted and achieved prosperity (rewriting a more positive past)
7. Symbolism, religion, and meaning
8. The future paths and questions of relevance for an archaeology of Africa and the African Diaspora.

Program

Saturday, Feb 27
9am-10pm
Regularly scheduled papers. Also, on this night, we will serve dinner from 5pm-7pm. Closing remarks and Merrick Posnansky’s Keynote Address will be given from 7pm-8pm, and the Howard University Arts Department will perform a closing show choreographed just for us from 8pm-10pm

Coffee, tea, and an assortment of breakfast breads will be served between 8:30-9am each day.

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Price

$10 Undergraduate Students
$25 Graduate Students
$50 General

Special Notes

Dr. Merrick Posnansky will be our Keynote Speaker and the conference will end with a special production choreographed by the Howard University Arts Department.  We encourage public participation and hope that you will gain inspiration from the variety of presentations.

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Committee Chair

Dr. Flordeliz T. Bugarin
fbugarin@howard.edu or HUArchaeologyConference@gmail.com
202-806-6853

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