Black Studies Reading Group
INFORMATION
Responsible: Ylva Habel is an Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Studies, and Researcher in the field Anti-Black racism. Her research draws on Black studies, the African Diaspora, postcolonial, critical race and whiteness studies, and specifically revolves around the affective economy of Swedish exceptionalist, colorblind discourses.
SEMINAR AND EVENT 2019
THE AFTERLIFE OF SOIL
Guest Lecture: With Professor Christina Sharpe, York University
Date: 13 May. Time: 13:15-15:00. Venue: Inhresalen, Engelska parken Uppsala universitet.
Abstract
In this talk, The Afterlife of Soil, Sharpe will think about wakes, slavery museums and memorials, about soil and dust. In order to do this she will turn to The Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Legacy Museum from Slavery to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama, among other sites. Sharpe will explore what soil might allow for in thinking about Black life and diaspora. She will also look to the work of Black women visual artists Torkwase Dyson and Courtney Desiree Morris.
"Christina Sharpe is a Professor at York University, Toronto in the Department of Humanities. She is the author of two books: In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016) (named by the Guardian and The Walrus as one of the best books of 2016 and a nonfiction finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award) and Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (2010), both published by Duke University Press. She is currently completing the critical introduction to the Collected Poems of Dionne Brand (1982-2010) to be published by Duke University Press. And she is working on a monograph: Black. Still. Life."
Welcome!
Black Marxism: The Making of The Black Radical Tradition
On the 15th of February, from 13 to 15 o'clock it is time for the next Black Studies Reading seminar! This time it will be led by Sociology Professor Anders Neergaard, REMESO, Linköpng University, who will introduce the session by bringing his perspectives on Cedric Robinson's book Black Marxism: The Making of The Black Radical Tradition (attaches as pdf here). Neergaard will also formulate a cluster of discussion questions, which will be sent via the mailing list in a few days. The seminar will be held in Swedish, but we welcome discussion entries in English from those who prefer that.
As usual, the seminar is held in house 22, Thunbergsvägen 3 C, but this time we will meet in room 22-0031 on the second floor. For those who would like to continue the discussions, we can go to a quiet bar or restaurant nearby afterwards.
Welcome!
Photographer: Olof Holmgren
SEMINAR AND EVENT 2018
Neo-Blaxploitation: Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) - Film screening and discussion
Neo-Blaxploitation: Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) - Film screening and discussion
2018 November 23, at 13.00-16.00. Venue: Humanistiska teatern.
The 23rd of November The Black Studies Network will hold a film seminar on the Blaxploitation era and its films. Initially, Ylva Habel, Senior research Fellow on anti-black racism, will give a short introduction to some of the defining features of the genre, its styles and themes. Iconic and classic examples of the Blaxploitation era will be shown, such as clips from Mandingo (1975), Coffy (1973), Super Fly (1972) and Shaft (1971). The film Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012) picks up on their legacy, and has been called a neo-Blaxploitation film. Central parts of the film will be screened and put into context with contemporary critiques of the many ways in which Blackness is made culturally fungible today.
After the screening cultural critic and journalist Valerie Kyeyune Backström and Ylva Habel will discuss the connections between the Blaxploitation era and contemporary Hollywood-production with Black central characters, such as 12 Years A Slave (2013) and Get Out (2017). Which points of connection can be seen between the original Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and the Hollywood narratives focusing Blackness we have seen more recently?