EDITOR’S NOTE: Media interested in covering this event should contact Susanna Treesh at susanna.treesh@rutgers.edu or 848-932-8551
WHAT: The Center for African Studies, the Center for European Studies and the Department of Italian examines the historic and contemporary ties that bind Africa and Europe in light of the Mediterranean migration crisis in a one-day, multidisciplinary symposium with an international panel of scholars, public intellectuals and artists. The event is open to the public.
There will be two panel discussions and an art/video installation. The first panel, Histories, Causes, and Contexts of the Current Crisis, will be held from 9:30-11:00 a.m. The second panel, Contemporary Trajectories, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. The art/video installation will be held from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
WHO:
- Ousseina Alidou (Former Director, Center for African Studies; Professor, Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
- Carolyn Brown (Former Director, Center for African Studies; Associate Professor, Department of History, Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
- Kassahun Checole (Publisher, Africa World Press, Inc. & The Red Sea Press, Inc.)
- Cristiana Giordano (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis)
- Ayten Gündoğdu (Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Barnard College-Columbia University)
- Amadou Kane Sy (Artist and Activist, Portes et Passages-Art et Développement, Mbodiene, Senegal)
- R. Daniel Kelemen (Former Director, Center for European Studies; Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
- Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen (Paris-based visual artist)
- Cristina Lombardi-Diop (Director, Rome Studies Program; Senior Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and Program in Women's and Gender Studies, Loyola University, Chicago)
- Harouna Mounkaila (Abdou Moumouni University, Republic of Niger)
- Nancy Sinkoff (Director, Center for European Studies; Associate Professor, Departments of Jewish Studies and History, Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
- Amidou Jean-Baptiste Sourou (Gregorian University in Rome/ St. Augustine University of Tanzania)
- Rhiannon Noel Welch (Assistant Professor, Department of Italian and Program in Cinema Studies, Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
Participant biographies can be viewed at http://go.rutgers.edu/qikig6f.
WHEN: October 16, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Panels 9:30 am -3:00 pm Teleconference Room, SCC 403, Alexander Library, 169 College Avenue Video and Art Exhibitions 4:00 – 6:00 pm New Brunswick Theological Seminary-Hageman Hall, 35 Seminary Place New Brunswick, NJ
BACKGROUND: The world is experiencing an unprecedented refugee crisis. As many as 59 million people, responding to the savage increase of global violence and economic oppression are fleeing on foot, in small boats, and in suffocating transport containers in order to make a better life for themselves. The African continent has been an epicenter of the socio-economic impact of neoliberal policies that have blocked hundreds of thousands of young Africans from having a future and have thrown others into turbulent and violent conflicts. The Mediterranean Sea has become a turbulent site of this catastrophe, a perilous thoroughfare for African refugees seeking entry into the seeming haven of opportunity and safety on the European continent. European nation-states, facing the insuperable challenge of accommodating asylum seekers, are shutting down their borders, or trying to do so. For some, the presence of these refugees calls European identity into question, bringing to the fore numerous unresolved legacies of European colonialism on the African continent.
The Center for African Studies, the Center for European Studies, and the Department of Italian invite the Rutgers community and the public to join us in examining this overwhelming reality in a multidisciplinary symposium with the hope that our intellectual and artistic exploration will raise awareness of this global catastrophe, and stimulate some programmatic response to this ongoing crisis.
This unprecedented collaboration between Rutgers departments and units from across the New Brunswick campus and representing several of the world’s regions is a strong testament to the global nature of these contemporary crises. Rutgers is proud to be among the first universities to host a symposium that brings together scholars, artists, and activists who are working in Africa and Europe to explore the catastrophic contemporary migration from Africa to Europe.