Events

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Fall 2023

Tuesday, December 5 | 5:30-7:00 PM
The Artist of The Family: Contemporary Black Artists and The Family Archive
Attend a talk with Dr. Alisa Prince as she explores how contemporary Black artists use family archives as materials and methods. The talk positions the collections of photographs and other memorabilia in Black homes as archives that serve to establish statements for and about their holders. As such, these materials play a critical role in Black self-making. The talk explores how artists such as Deana Lawson, Tyler Mitchell, and Carrie Mae Weems interact with family archives to speak authoritatively to/for/about Black life.

Alisa Victoria Prince is a scholar, artist, and curator of visual arts and artifacts of the Black diaspora. Her work focuses on the history of photography, the roles of race and gender in identity construction, Black Feminist traditions, archival theory, and artistic forms of resistance. Her dissertation takes up vernacular photographs of Black people, particularly those with origins in the family album, and explores the forms of value to which they are subject in different spaces. She has taught courses on Black identity, feminism, photography, and cultural capital and serves on the Editorial Board of InVisible Culture, a journal for visual culture. Register here.
Location: Howard Thurman Center, 808 Commonwealth Ave, FLR 205, Boston, MA 02446

Wednesday, December 6 | 6:00-7:30 PM
Major & Minor Dinner
Attend a delightful evening as we bring together majors and minors of AFAMBDS for a Major & Minor Dinner. This event provides an excellent opportunity to celebrate our collective achievements while enjoying a meal in great company. To help us prepare accordingly, we kindly request that you register your attendance by Wednesday, November 29th. Register here.
Location: AFAMBDS Building, 138 Mountfort St, Brookline, MA 02446

Thursday, December 7 | 4:00-5:30 PM
“Epidemic Orientalism: Race, Capital, and the Governance of Infectious Disease”
For most of the 21st century, much of the world has taken for granted our ability to fight back against pandemics and control them with little effect on day-to-day life. Until the emergence of COVID-19, few in the western world would have had any occasion to consider the histories of infectious disease control that have managed the spread of pandemic threats around the world. In Epidemic Orientalism: Race, Capital and the Governance of Infectious Disease, Prof. Alexandre White tells the story of how epidemic threats become the focus of international management, regulation and control, as well as the political, economic, and racial ideologies that have shaped international coordination to stop pandemic spread. Register to Attend
Location: Pardee Center Conference Room, 67 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215

Spring 2024

Thursday, February 29, 2024 | 6:30 PM
“Black Trans Poetics”
Save the Date! Join us for a mesmerizing poetry reading featuring Cameron Awkward-Rich, Levi Cain, and JR Mahung. This event will be featured in AFAMBDS’s Black History Season. More details to come.
Location: TBD

Past Events

Monday, September 4 | 12-3 PM
CAS First Year Labor Day Welcome Event
Congratulations and welcome to the College of Arts & Sciences at BU! We hope you all take a moment to recognize and celebrate this wonderful achievement. More info to come.
Location: 25 Lenox St, Brookline, MA 02446

Thursday, September 7 | 4-6 PM
Social Sciences Block Party
The Social Sciences of Boston University invites students to celebrate the start of the 2023-24 academic year at a Block Party in CDS 1750! Hosted by the African American & Black Diaspora Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Center for Innovation in Social Science, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, and Women and Gender Studies Program. Register here.
Location: 665 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

Thursday, September 14 | 6 PM
The Howard Thurman Center Black Community Reception
Join us as we kick-off the fall semester with our annual community receptions! All students, faculty, and staff at Boston University are invited to the Howard Thurman Center for an evening of celebration, finding community, connecting with student groups, and exploring campus resources. Register here.
Location: 808 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

Friday, September 22 | 2-4 PM
Class of ’73 Black Alumni/Faculty & Administration Session
Presented by the Class of 1973 Black Alumni, learn about the University’s outreach efforts to engage and support faculty, students & staff from racially diverse communities and discuss potential avenues for Black Alumni to serve as a resource. Register here.
Location: Photonics Building RM906, 8 St Mary’s St, Boston, MA 02215

Friday, September 22 | 4-8 PM
Black2BU: Alumni Weekend Celebration
Our annual fall kick-off and alumni reunion event will feature catering from Jamaica Mi Hungry and live music from DJ ATM. Register here.
Location: AFAMBDS Building, 138 Mountfort St, Brookline, MA 02446

Saturday, September 30 | 12:30-3 PM
AFAMBDS Student Lunch & Freedom Trail Walking Tour
Explore Boston with the African American & Black Diaspora Studies Program! Join us for lunch and then a private tour of the Freedom Trail. Spots are limited, so register before space runs out! Register here.
Location: AFAMBDS Building, 138 Mountfort St, Brookline, MA 02446

Wednesday, October 4 | 5:30-7 PM
Lynching & Anti-LGBT Violence: Making the Connection
The violence plaguing LGBT communities has much in common with the brutal practice of lynching, which was at its height from the 1890s through the 1930s. Ultimately, both forms of aggression deny targeted groups recognition as citizens. Having devoted decades to studying racial violence, Dr. Koritha Mitchell brings this expertise to her examination of the data on anti-LGBT attacks collected by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). Her research equips audiences to make their environments less hostile for more people.

Dr. Koritha Mitchell is author of the award-winning book Living with Lynching and author of the 2020 book From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture. She is also editor of Frances E. W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy and editor of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved woman. She has been a professor of English at Ohio State University for eighteen years. As a visiting scholar, she will conduct her teaching and research in community with BU students, staff, and faculty. Register here.
Location: Howard Thurman Center, 808 Commonwealth Ave, FLR 205, Boston, MA 02446

Tuesday, October 17 | 5:30 PM
Screening & Virtual Q&A with Filmmaker Crystal Kwok
What did it mean to be Chinese in Black spaces during segregation? Director Crystal Kwok digs into how her grandmother’s family navigated life as grocery store owners in a black Augusta, Georgia neighborhood. The film weaves personal family stories with memories from the larger Chinese and Black communities, examining both anti-black racism and the deeply rooted structures of white supremacy and Chinese patriarchy. Register here.
Location: BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS), 665 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215

Wednesday, October 25 | 7:30 PM
Afro-Cuban Sacred Music
Román Díaz, Dr. Ivor Miller, Michele Rosewoman
Explore the depth, beauty, and complexity of the multiple traditions of Afro-Cuban sacred music with musican, poet, priest, and culture-bearer Román Díaz. In conversation with his frequent collaborator, researcher Ivor Miller, and backed by traditional musicians from Michele Rosewoman’s acclaimed New Yor-Uba ensemble, Díaz will perform and explain a variety of Afro-Cuban sacred music in an intimate setting. This event is free and part of the BU Residency and 40th Anniversary tour of Michele’s Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba. Register here.
Location: Marsh Chapel (735 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215)