Global South Lecture Series

The next lecture and workshop series is planned for September 10 and 11, 2009.

The fall lectures will focus on some of the historical dimensions of the Global South, specifically the movement of Africans and African Americans within the international context of the African diaspora. We have invited two speakers to campus for productive dialogue and exchange who each present public plenary lectures and meet with the faculty working group to discuss various theoretical aspects of global south studies and also practical, institutional initiatives.

The two guest speakers are Michael Gomez and Gaurav Desai. Michael Gomez, Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, has agreed to deliver a lecture on “African Society and Culture in the Colonial and Antebellum South”; his address centers on the reconstruction of various African codes of ethics, beliefs and relations, not as specific “Africanisms,” but as indices of transnational transformations in the Global South. Gaurav Desai, Professor of English at Tulane University and scholar in residence at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, will deliver a lecture titled "Oceans Connect: The Atlantic and Indian Ocean Imaginaries." Professor Desai’s current research focuses primarily the Indian Ocean in a global and trans-historical context.

Both lectures are scheduled to take place on Thursday, September 10: the first one at 4:00 pm to be followed by informal discussion, the second one at 6:30 pm. During Friday’s workshop session, we are planning on discussing the significance of cultural migrations in the Global South, specifically those that connect Mississippi to the African diaspora; how such a focus on movement and migration might transform our understanding of the American South; and what such a new understanding might yield for our teaching and institutional practices in the humanities and social sciences.

The faculty working group on the Global South is funded by the Office of Research, and visits are made possible by the generous contributions of many departments and institutes across campus.

Our most recent guests were Professor Caroline Levander (Rice U), Professor Walter Mignolo (Duke U) and Professor Saskia Sassen (U of Chicago).



See the UM Calendar for more important dates.