Conference Schedule

To access the PDF version of the conference schedule, please  click here or contact the African American Studies Program.

Though all events are free and open to the public, prior registration is required. Please visit the conference registration page for more information.

Boston University
October 26 – 28, 2010

Registration is required for all conference events.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

6:00pm: Opening Reception (Boston University Castle, 225 Bay State Road)

Cameo Performance by the Inner Strength Gospel Choir

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Conference proceedings (Boston University Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s Street, 9th floor)

9:00am: Registration

9:30am: Welcome Remarks & Special Recognition of Marvin Gilmore

Welcome remarks by Ambassador Charles Stith, Director of the African Presidential Archives & Research Center, and Dr. Linda Heywood, Director of the African American Studies Program

10:00am: Session I: Foreign Policy in the Pre-World War II Period

Chair: Timothy Longman, Director of the African Studies Center at Boston University

Blacks in the Diplomatic and Consular Services, 1829-1924

Allison Blakely, George & Joyce Wein Professor of African American Studies at Boston University

Racism and the Role of African Americans in the Diplomatic Relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia

Getachew Metaferia, Associate Professor of Political Science at Morgan State University

White Shame / Black Agency: Race as a Weapon in Post-World War I Diplomacy

Vera Ingrid Grant, Executive Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University

11:30am: Working Lunch

12:30pm: Session II: Foreign Policy in World War II, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights Movement

Chair: Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University

Ralph Bunche, the Atlantic Charter, and Africa: Working for Decolonization from the Inside

Pearl T. Robinson, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University

Malcolm X and U.S. Policies Toward Africa

Abdul Karim Bangura, Professor of Research Methodology and Political Science at Howard University

Carl Rowan and the Dilemma of Civil Rights, Propaganda, and the Cold War

Michael L. Krenn, Professor of History at Appalachian State University

2:00pm:  Session III: The Black Church and U.S. Foreign Policy

Chair: Walter Earl Fluker, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership at Boston University

“For Such a Time as This:” The Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention and Reconstruction’s Revival in the African Mission Field

Brandi Suzanne Hughes, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Michigan

The Role of the Black Church in U.S. Foreign Policy Formation

Robert H. Kelley III, Senior Pastor of My Father’s House Christian Fellowship Church (South Africa)

Thursday October 28, 2010

9:00am: Registration

9:30am: Session IV: Music, Student Activism, and Cultural Diplomacy

Chair: Hardin Coleman, Dean of the School of Education at Boston University

The Paradox of Jazz Diplomacy

Lisa Davenport, PhD and author of Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as Foreign Policy Catalyzers: The Case for Peace in the Sudan

Charles Moses, Assistant Professor of Management at Clark Atlanta University

Cynthia Lucas Hewitt, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Morehouse College

Najwa Gadaheldam, Development Officer at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Hegemonic Rhythms: The Role of Hip Hop Music in 21st Century American Public Diplomacy

Joseph L. Jones, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Johnson C. Smith University

11:30am: Session V: The United States and the Question of Haiti

Chair: Linda Heywood, Director of the African American Studies Program at Boston University

“To Combine the Training of the Head and the Hands:” U.S. African Americans, the Good Neighbor Policy, and Educating Haitians during the U.S. Occupation, 1930-1931

Millery Polyné, Assistant Professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University

The Black Foreign Policy Constituency for Haiti

Sherri McFarland, Professor at the National Defense Intelligence College

12:30pm: U.S. Foreign Policy under the Obama Administration

The Honorable Johnnie Carson, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

2:00pm: Session VI: The Obama Adminsitration, Black Diplomats, and the World

Chair: Willard Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at MIT

Obama, African Americans, and Africans: The Double Vision

Ibrahim Sundiata, Samuel and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University

The United Nations and the African American Presence: From Ralph Bunche to Susan Rice

Lorenzo Morris, Professor of Political Science at Howard University

7:00pm: Closing Dinner (Metcalf Trustee Ballroom, One Silber Way, 9th floor)

Opening Remarks by Sharon Kromer, USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Africa Bureau

Featuring a keynote lecture on “Foreign Policy in the Bush Administration” by The Honorable Jendayi Frazer, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs