The History Department’s Colloquium Committee warmly invites you to attend the inaugural session of our FOCAL POINT Dialogues in History series. Inspired by the History Department’s Statement on the George Floyd Uprising and its invocation to understand and interrogate our racialized past and the investments of disciplinary history within it, the series brings together History faculty and graduate students who have volunteered to lead a dialogue on Black life, race, and antiblackness in history. The conversations will engage Herman Bennett’s African Kings and Black Slaves (2018) as a focal point to discuss themes like sovereignty, empire, and racial capitalism from different historical angles of vision.
The FOCAL POINT schedule is as follows:
19th February at 1 PM: Sovereignty and the Political
Featuring presentations by Juan Cobo Betancourt, Elizabeth Digeser, Adam Sabra, and Sergey Saluschev
Comment by Hilary Bernstein
12th March at 1 PM: Empire and Liberation
Featuring presentations by Anthony Greco, Stephan Miescher, Katie Moore, and Ya Zuo
Comment by Evelyne Laurent-Perrault
16th April at 1 PM: Racial Capitalism and Liberalism
Featuring presentations by Manuel Covo, Alice O’Connor, Sherene Seikaly, and Mattie Webb
Comment by Mhoze Chikowero
The series ends with a keynote lecture on “Body, Soul & Subject: A History of Difference in the Early-Modern African Atlantic” by Prof. Herman Bennett on 21st May, 2021 at 1 PM.
All panels will be held on Zoom, with links distributed via email and the Department’s Events pages in advance.
Department members may access a free ebook copy of African Kings and Black Slaves at http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb?ID=UCSB using their ucsb.edu email address and the password sent via email on January 25. For assistance logging in, contact Lana Do at lanado@hfa.ucsb.edu.