Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies Project (ALAL) | African American & African Diaspora Studies

African American & African Diaspora Studies

Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies Project (ALAL)

Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies Project (ALAL)

Proyecto de Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos/Latinx 

Photo: CACE conference, Nodia Mena speaking as part of a roundtable.

Focusing on Latin America and the African Diaspora in the Atlantic World

To create a vibrant space for faculty and students to engage through research, coursework, conference panels, workshops, and public lectures in the histories, cultures, and societies of Afro-Latin America.

Centrado en América Latina y la Diáspora Africana en el mundo Atlántico

Crear un espacio vibrante para que el profesorado y los estudiantes se dediquen, a través de la investigación, los cursos, los paneles de conferencias, los talleres y las charlas públicas, a las historias, las culturas y las sociedades de la América Afro-latina.

Co-Coordinators Dr. Nicole Scalissi & Dr. Omar Ali

 

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EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES:

AADS, along with colleagues from across the university, shines a light on the African Diaspora in Latin America in a number of ways:

  • SPRING 2023 CACE conference programing — Roundtable discussions and presentations on Afro-Latin America

  • NEW CLASS — SPRING 2023 AADS 306  “Afro-Latin American Art, Politics, and the Law,” Co-taught by Monica Carrillo and Omar Ali. Past classes — AADS Special Topics “Afro-Latin America: Africa, Iberia, and the Americas”

  • Recent public talks — Spring 2022, UCLA scholar Nohora Arrieta Fernandez “Black Women Artists in Latin America”

  • Publications by faculty members — ReVista article “African and Afro-Indian Rebel Leaders” and Atlantic Biographies Brill chapter “Benkos Biohó“), including the work of Omar Ali, Nodia Mena, Nicole Scalissi, and Ana Paula Höfling

  • Co-hosting Afro-Peruvian visiting fellow Monica Carrillo in partnership with Lloyd International Honors College

  • Working with Goldsboro, H.S., Department of History chair, Afro-Latina Stephanie Orosco, who serves as part of the Wayne County Public School’s Social Studies Super Core, around Afro-Mexican history and culture.

 

RECENT EXHIBITS & ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Afrolatinidad in North Carolina, Raleigh, NC

El Pasado Mio/My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to  Cuban Art, Cambridge, MA

Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

 

Image above: ‘Casta painting’ with partial set of 16 casta combinations (a racial classification in the Spanish colonies in the Americas)

 

Background: During the sixteenth century Africans and their descendants outnumbered Europeans and their descendants in Lima, Mexico City, and Salvador da Bahia–the three principal cities of colonial Latin America. Over the next three centuries millions of Central Africans and West Africans were forcibly migrated to work the plantations, mines, and in the cities of Spanish and Portuguese settlers. While resistance to slavery took place at first point of contact in Africa, continuing throughout the Middle Passages and in the Iberian colonies themselves (in the form of armed rebellions and maroon settlements, among other strategies), many enslaved Africans and their descendants assimilated into the existing colonial systems and Native American communities helping to shape societies across the Americas. 

 

Photo above: Participants in CACE Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies.

 

Selected Publications:

 

 

Some UNCG faculty and affiliated researchers working on or teaching aspects of Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies:

 

 

Nicole Scalissi, Ph.D. (Art; Latinx United States) Co-Coordinator

 

Omar H. Ali, Ph.D.  (AADS/History/Honors; Colombia and Peru) Co-Coordinator

 

Monica Carrillo Zegarra, MFA (Honors; Peru)

 

Robin Gee, MFA (Dance; West Africa, Mali)

 

Cerise Glenn Manigault, Ph.D. (Communication Studies/AADS)

 

Dominick Hand, M.A. (AADS)

 

Ana Paula Höfling, Ph.D. (Dance; Brazil)

 

Nodia Mena, M.A. (School of Education; Honduras)

 

Linda M. Rupert, Ph.D. (History; Early Modern Caribbean)

 

 

Research Affiliate:

 

Stephanie Orosco (AADS alumna, Department of History Chair, Goldsboro H..S., North Carolina)

 

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Dr. Omar Ali ohali@uncg.edu

If you are a researcher or faculty member at UNCG who wants to be listed here or share relevant classes, programming, publications, artwork, or the like on the topic, we are happy to help shine a light on your contributions.