The Department of History is sponsoring a symposium on comparative black history Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Kellogg Center.
The event, “Diaspora Paradigms: New Scholarship in Comparative Black History,” will feature entertainment, a luncheon Friday and Saturday and speakers from across the globe.
The event is free to faculty, staff and students. Registration will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today in the Kellogg Center Heritage Room.
The conference features keynote speakers Michel-Rolph Trouillot, a professor of anthropology and social sciences at the University of Chicago, and Chana Kai Lee, associate professor of history at the University of Georgia.
Other black history scholars will also attend the event, coming from the University of Tasmania; the University of Hamburg, Germany; the University of Sydney, Australia; the University of Toronto; the University of North-West, South Africa; and the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
There will be a discussion period after each speaker presentation.
Entertainment by Lynn Jordan and the Shivers and Betty Joplin and Friends will be featured at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Daina L. Ramey, an associate professor of history and comparative black studies at MSU, said she thinks the event, which was last held in 1995, will be a success.
“It is cutting-edge research from graduate students and professors at universities,” she said. “I think the turnout will be large, particularly because it is open to everyone, and there are people coming from all over the world.”
Peter Beattie, an associate professor of history, said he has been encouraging students in his classes to attend the event.
“We are going to have a very lively conference,” he said. “There has been a lot of interest in the past. I am very hopeful that we will have a strong turnout.”
Marshanda Smith, a comparative black history graduate student who helped plan the event, said she thinks the hard work of eight graduate students who organized it will pay off.
“We have been planning this for a year and a half,” she said. “I think it will be an excellent event.”
