Conceptualizing Black Europe's Past, Present and Future(s)

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Although scholars and activists have long articulated the intimate connections between Europe and the African Diaspora, in the past three decades, there has been an explosion of scholarship examining how people of African descent have shaped and transformed Europe. This roundtable brings together scholars who are engaged in cutting-edge research on diasporic communities in Europe to engage in a critical state-of-the field dialogue about ‘Black Europe’ as a conceptual tool and as a lived experience. What are some of the themes, experiences and ideas that have constituted ‘Blackness’ and being ‘Black’ in a European context historically and how have people of African descent defined, negotiated and transformed this terrain? Meredith L. Roman will focus attention on the Black Diaspora in the Soviet Union and Russia in the twentieth century with attention to topics including the relationship between the U.S.S.R. and African American activists during the Cold War and Soviet leaders’ interest in the Black Panther Party. Kira Thurman will use her work on African American classical musicians who performed German music in the interwar period and reimagined constructs of race, gender and nation as a point of departure to discuss emerging trends in Black German Studies. Felix Germain will offer comments on contemporary France that raise questions about the transnationality of la France Africaine and explore how the children of African migrants see themselves in relation to Africa. Finally, Tony A. Frazier will trace developments in the historiography on Black Britain and track some of the emerging scholarly trends that are remaking British history.

Sub Unit

• 101st Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Chair

• Kennetta Hammond Perry, East Carolina University

Discussants

• Kira Thurman, University of Michigan

• Felix Germain, University of Pittsburgh

• Meredith L. Roman, The College at Brockport (SUNY)

• Tony A. Frazier, North Carolina Central University

• ASALH Audience, .