Saint Louis to Saint Louis: Tracing Senegalese Urban Ecologies Across Class, Gender, and Language

Session Submission Type: Panel

Description for Program

This panel is composed of Washington University students and alumni who participated in the Senegal Study Abroad Program in the Summer of 2024 under the instruction of Dean Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo and Dr. Samba Diallo. Together, we traveled from our recent home of St. Louis, Missouri to various cities in Senegal, including Saint Louis and Dakar. While our projects span digital geographies, gendered and religious experiences, urban infrastructure, artistic production, and literary communities, we center this panel around Senegalese sociocultural experiences and interrogating legacies of colonialism across time and geography.

Sub Unit

• ASWAD

Chair

• Han Zhang, n/a

Individual Presentations

• Structural Barriers to Women’s Educational Advancement in Senegal - Aisha Adedayo

• The New Ouverture: Freedom of Expression for Twenty-First Century Senegalese Creatives - Tyra Frazier, Washington University in St. Louis

• The Aesthetics of Occupation: The Relationships Defining the Geography of Street Vendors in Dakar - Kaila Holland

• “We chose the street”: Senegalese Graffiti Artists’ Reclamation of Urban Geography for Decolonial Pasts, Presents, and Futures - Maya Phelps, Washington University in St Louis

Discussant

• Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, Washington University