The Black Studies Podcast is a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.
…
continue reading
A series of podcasts on the Caribbean critical theory tradition, from Suzanne Césaire through the creolist movement.
…
continue reading
Podcasted process pieces from my course “Cinema of the Black Atlantic” at University of Maryland.
…
continue reading
Podcasted conversation on critical and literary theory, drawing on a range of theorists from Europe, the United States, Caribbean, and Latin America. Our title is drawn from Audre Lorde's essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," where she writes that poetry fashions a language where words do not yet exist. How does theory make words and world new, attuned, and embedded within inventive and inventing lived-experience, tradition, and cultural production?
…
continue reading
These conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theory to the black Atlantic to sites of indigenous resistance and self-articulation, as well as the complex geography of thinking between traditions, inside traditions, and from positions of insurgency, critique, and counternarrative.
…
continue reading
Podcasted process pieces from my course Black Existentialism. The course introduces one of the most important and potent mid-century intellectual movements - the existentialist movement - through a series of black Atlantic thinkers. Our keystone will be Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, which is arguably the most important work of Black existentialism from this period. Across the semester we will see why existentialism, with its focus on the ambiguities and ambivalences of lived-experi ...
…
continue reading
20-30 minute reflections on particular Spike Lee films, from School Daze up through Black KkKlansman - précis for a book-length study of Lee's cinema, reflections on a course I've taught a number of times at Amherst College and University of Maryland. In these podcast pieces, I pay particular attention to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they emerge inside particular films and in the history-memory of African American life. How does Lee's cinema think? How does sound and image ...
…
continue reading
1
Mary Hicks - Department of History, University of Chicago
55:03
55:03
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
55:03
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers …
…
continue reading
1
Utz McKnight - Department of Gender and Race Studies, University of Alabama
1:03:03
1:03:03
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:03:03
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers …
…
continue reading
1
Naila Ansari, John Torrey, and Marcus Watson - Department of Africana Studies, Buffalo State University
1:13:10
1:13:10
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:13:10
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers …
…
continue reading
1
Jessica Marie Johnson - Department of History, Johns Hopkins University
45:25
45:25
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
45:25
This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - …
…
continue reading
1
Jakeya Caruthers - Departments of English and Africana Studies, Drexel University
52:21
52:21
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
52:21
This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - …
…
continue reading
1
Huey Hewitt - Department of African American Studies, Harvard University
48:32
48:32
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
48:32
This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers …
…
continue reading
1
Cona Marshall - Department of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester
52:00
52:00
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
52:00
This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - …
…
continue reading
1
Charles McKinney - Department of Africana Studies, Rhodes College
1:06:12
1:06:12
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:06:12
Today’s conversation is with Professor Charles McKinney, author of the 2010 book Greater Freedom: The Evolution of Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina and the co-editor of two fantastic volumes: An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee with Aram Goudsouzian from 2018 and the recently released From Rights to Liv…
…
continue reading
1
Ashley Newby and John E. Drabinski - Department of African American and Africana Studies, University of Maryland
53:07
53:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
53:07
You’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the c…
…
continue reading
1
Dalton, Christin, and Lisa on Henzell, Baugh, and The Wailers
1:02:23
1:02:23
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:02:23
Dalton, Christin, and Lisa discuss the final bit of material from the seminar, including Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come, Edward Baugh's "The West Indian Writer and His Quarrel with History," and The Wailers' album Burnin'.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Edward Baugh, Perry Henzell, and The Wailers - Inventiveness, the Underclass, and the Sounds of the Everyday
24:43
24:43
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:43
A discussion of Edward Baugh's essay "The West Indian Writer and His Quarrel with History," Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come, and The Wailer's masterpiece album Burnin'.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Kayna, Dalton, and Abby on Maryse Condé and the Creolists
41:37
41:37
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
41:37
Kayna, Dalton, and Abby discuss the Creolist's response to Maryse Condé's critical remarks on the créolité movement, thinking through questions of nation, time, and identity.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Maryse Condé and the Créolité Movement - Literature, Identity, Diaspora
22:51
22:51
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
22:51
A discussion of Maryse Condé's essay "Order, Disorder, Freedom, and the West Indian Writer" and the critical interview "Créolité Bites" with Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant, with particular emphasis on the relationship between literature, identity, and diaspora.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Charlie, Lisa, and Teagan on Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant
53:33
53:33
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
53:33
Charlie, Lisa, and Teagan discuss In Praise of Creoleness and its cultural politics of race, identity, and expression.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant - Creoleness, Identity, Literature
33:14
33:14
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
33:14
Discussion of Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant's 1989 manifesto In Praise of Creoleness, with particular attention to questions of identity, cultural production, and the relation between writer and reader.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Teagan, Lisa, and Kayna on Kamau Brathwaite
39:53
39:53
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
39:53
Discussion of Kamau Brathwaite's poetics and poetic praxis with Teagan, Kayna, and Lisa.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Kamau Brathwaite - Orality, Aurality, and Postcolonial Intelligence
26:57
26:57
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:57
A discussion of the relation between orality and aurality in Kamau Brathwaite's poetics and poetic praxis.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Mary Catherine, Twanna, and Christin on Wilson Harris
36:02
36:02
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
36:02
A discussion of Wilson Harris' work with Mary Catherine Contreras, Twanna Hodge, and Christin Washington.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Wilson Harris - Creoleness, Identity, and the Imagination
22:12
22:12
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
22:12
A discussion of two late essays by Wilson Harris on creoleness and the imagination, with particular emphasis on how they ask us to rethink and recalibrate our language of identity.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Twanna, Abigail, and Charlie on Glissant and Benítez-Rojo
42:48
42:48
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
42:48
Abigail, Twanna, and Charlie discuss the intersections between the work of Glissant and Benítez-Rojo.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Édouard Glissant and Antonio Benítez-Rojo - The Archipelago, Chaos, and an Ethics of the Aesthetic
22:52
22:52
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
22:52
A discussion of Glissant's and Benítez-Rojo's conceptions of the archipelago, chaos, and the implications for an ethic of globalized aesthetics.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Twanna, Mary Catherine, and Dalton on Glissant and Walcott
45:46
45:46
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
45:46
A discussion of Glissant's and Walcott's work, specifically the opening pages of Poetics of Relation and the poem "The Sea is History."By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theo…
…
continue reading
1
Autumn Womack on The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial data, 1880-1930
1:02:51
1:02:51
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:02:51
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theo…
…
continue reading
1
Derek Walcott and Édouard Glissant - History, the Sea, and Caribbean Identity
28:32
28:32
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
28:32
Reflections on Derek Walcott's 1977 poem "The Sea is History" and the opening sections of Édouard Glissant's Poetics of Relation, with emphasis on history and identity in relation to the Middle Passage and its catastrophic loss.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Kayna, Charlie, and Christin on V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott
38:35
38:35
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
38:35
Kayna, Charlie, and Christin discuss V.S. Naipaul's Middle Passage and two essays by Derek Walcott, "The Muse of History" and "The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory."By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott - History and Caribbeanness
28:38
28:38
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
28:38
A discussion of V.S. Naipaul's The Middle Passage (1962) in relation to Derek Walcott's "The Muse of History" (1974) and "The Antilles" (1992), focused on how Naipaul's melancholia structures his imagination of West Indian history and how Walcott's meditations on paternity and fragmentation reconfigures that imagination.…
…
continue reading
1
Twanna, Dalton, and Abby on Sylvia Wynter, Blackness, and Coloniality
46:39
46:39
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
46:39
A discussion of two essays by Sylvia Wynter: "Toward the Socigenic Principle" and "Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom"By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Sylvia Wynter - Sociogenesis, Consciousness, and the Human
32:21
32:21
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
32:21
A discussion of Sylvia Wynter's work and its extension of Fanon's key insights, with particular emphasis on her essays "Toward the Sociogenic Principle" and "Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom."By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Lisa, Abby, and Teagan on Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks
38:46
38:46
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
38:46
Lisa, Abby, and Teagan discuss the significance and meaning of Frantz Fanon's 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Frantz Fanon - Antiblackness, Language, and World-Making
28:57
28:57
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
28:57
A discussion of key themes in Frantz Fanon's 1952 text Black Skin, White Masks, with particular attention to the function of language, sociogeny, and antiblackness in conceiving the possibilities of world-making.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Charlie, Mary Catherine, and Teagan on René Ménil's Surrealism and Caribbeanness
30:59
30:59
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
30:59
A discussion of René Ménil's writings on surrealism and Caribbeanness, with particular focus on his essays from the early 1940s in the journal Tropiques.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
René Ménil - Caribbeanness, Decolonization, and Poetry After the Heteronomic
26:10
26:10
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:10
A discussion of René Ménil's essays from Tropiques and their vision of a poetics of Caribbean identity and life.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Kayna, Christin, and Mary Catherine on Suzanne Césaire's Surrealism
36:26
36:26
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
36:26
Reflections by Kayna Richards, Christin Washington, and Mary Catherine Contreras on Suzanne Césaire's essay on Surrealism.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Suzanne Césaire - Surrealism, Civilization, and the Making of a Poetics
33:14
33:14
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
33:14
An examination of Suzanne Césaire's essays for Tropiques on surrealism and Frobenius' notion of civilization, with particular attention to how those essays establish the conditions for a possible poetics of the post colony.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Aimé Césaire - Surrealism, Civilization, and Poetry's Possibility
26:29
26:29
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
26:29
A discussion of Aimé Césaire's 1945 essay "Poetry and Knowledge" and 1956 essay "Culture and Colonization," with particular focus on how the poetic word functions as an anti-colonial intervention.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Silence and Black Masculinity in The Brother From Another Planet
32:14
32:14
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
32:14
Discussion of the John Sayles 1984 film The Brother From Another Planet, in particular how the silence of the alien - Brother - allows us to see features of race and gender in American life.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Mark Deets on A Country of Defiance: Mapping the Casamance in Senegal
1:23:23
1:23:23
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:23:23
This discussion is with Dr. Mark W. Deets, an Assistant Professor of African and World History and the Director of the Center for American Studies and Research at The American University in Cairo. His research and teaching focus on 19 th and 20th century West African social and cultural history, especially in the Senegambian region. His first book,…
…
continue reading
1
Marlene Daut on Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution
1:08:42
1:08:42
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:08:42
Today’s discussion is with Dr. Marlene Daut , she is a Professor of French and African American Studies at Yale University and author of the recently published book Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution. She is series editor of New World Studies at UVA Press, co-editor of Global Black History at Public Books, and ha…
…
continue reading
1
Eziaku Nwokocha on Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States
1:40:26
1:40:26
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:40:26
This discussion is with Dr. Eziaku Nwokocha, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami. She is a scholar of Africana religions with expertise in the ethnographic study of Vodou in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Her research is grounded in gender and sexuality studies, visual and material culture and A…
…
continue reading
1
Drew Dalton on The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism
1:24:55
1:24:55
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:24:55
You’re listening to Conversations in Atlantic Theory, a podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, these conversations explore the cultural, political, and philosophical traditions of the Atlantic world, ranging from European critical theo…
…
continue reading
1
Dash and Gerima on What is an African American
28:19
28:19
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
28:19
A discussion of Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust and Haile Gerima's Sankofa, centered on the question "What is an African American?" I explore how Dash answers this question by filtering the memory of Africa through the "American" part of African American, but Gerima inverts this prerogative and understands the "American" to be a sign of alienati…
…
continue reading
1
Home and the Postcolonial State in Jean Marie Teno's Clando
30:12
30:12
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
30:12
A discussion of Jean Marie Teno's 1996 film Clando, with particular focus on how the degeneration of the postcolonial state transforms a sense of home, nation, land, and embodiment.By John E. Drabinski
…
continue reading
1
Gender, Colonialism, and the Everyday in Sambizanga
24:02
24:02
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:02
A discussion of Sarah Maldoror's film Sambizanga (1972) and how it entwines reflections on gender, colonialism, and the everyday. As well, I discuss Maldoror's commitment to making a film infused with mourning and beauty both, which does not compromise the politics of the film but instead, in the aesthetic dimension, teaches a moral lesson about th…
…
continue reading
1
Memory of Colonialism in Zulu and Battle of Algiers
34:29
34:29
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
34:29
A discussion of the pairing of Zulu and Battle of Algiers, with particular focus on how each films forms a memory of colonialism. What was the meaning of colonialism? What did it reveal about the colonizer? And who were the colonized, both in the moment of domination and in the moment of revolutionary struggle? I note how defense of the feminine - …
…
continue reading
1
Colonialism and its Aftermath in La noire de... and Mandabi
30:18
30:18
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
30:18
A discussion of the function of colonialism as a political-psychological and economic presence in the postcolonial nation. With emphasis on how relationships to France wreak death and destruction in the postcolony, I explore how Ousmane Sembène tells a political story through intimate portraits of a young woman seeking adventure (La noire de...) an…
…
continue reading
1
Crisis and Dimensionality in Hollywood Shuffle
27:06
27:06
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
27:06
Short discussion of Robert Townsend's 1987 film Hollywood Shuffle, with particular attention to how the film poses critical questions to putting Black bodies, Black people, and Black life on the screen. I also talk about how the resonance of Hollywood Shuffle might tell us as much about our own consumption patters as it does about the reality of ci…
…
continue reading
1
Isaac Vincent Joslin on Afrofuturisms: Ecology, Humanity, and Francophone Cultural Expressions
1:15:59
1:15:59
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:15:59
This discussion is with Dr. Isaac Joslin who holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Francophone Studies. Currently Assistant Professor of Francophone Studies and Global Futures Scholar at Arizona State University, he has travelled extensively for research in Francophone Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, Burkina Faso, Rwanda…
…
continue reading
1
Jenkins on Masculinity, Touch, and Vulnerability
22:38
22:38
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
22:38
A discussion of Barry Jenkins' 2016 film Moonlight, with particular focus on the question of masculinity and race. How do touch, vulnerability, and beauty change the way we think about masculine identification? What does it mean to put this vision of masculinity in conversation with Richard Wright's rendering of re-masculation as violence, dominati…
…
continue reading
1
Wright on Guns, Masculinity, and Violence
21:56
21:56
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
21:56
A treatment of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Was Almost A Man," which examines the place of violence, guns, and respect in radicalized formations of masculinity. How does the main character Dave Saunders reimagine his masculinity in a world of emasculation? And how does the gun function as a phallic symbol that is indispensable for imag…
…
continue reading