GFDD and FUNGLODE Will Organize High-Level Conference: The Presence of Africa in the Caribbean, the Antilles and the United States

Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and its sister institution in the Dominican Republic, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), will organize a three-day academic conference titled “The Presence of Africa in the Caribbean, the Antilles and the United States.” The international event, to be celebrated July 18-20, 2011 at FUNGLODE headquarters in
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, will convene prominent historians and social scientists from the United States, Latin America and Africa.

The high-level forum, which will feature a keynote address by Harvard Professor and renowned intellectual Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., seeks to present recent scholarship on the history of the African Diaspora in the region, in an effort to elevate discourse regarding the historical trajectory of persons of African descent throughout
continent, and to further understanding of how this trajectory continues to shape modern-day society.

Central topics to be discussed include: the Middle Passage, antislavery movements, the significance of cimarronaje and palenque communities, transculturation, black agency and Pan Africanism, political culture, music, literature, religion, linguistics and the arts, amongst others.

The conference will conclude with the presentation of the acclaimed film
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, which depicts the story of the largest slave-trading family in the United States with a question and answer session with Managing Director and Protagonist James De Wolf Perry.

The conference will include presentations of scholarly work by the following national and international academics:

Henry Louis Gates Jr.
José Guerrero
Dante Ortíz
Dario
Solano
Samuel Saelversad Gregoire
Frank Moya Pons
Silvio Torres-Saillant
Franklin J. Franco
Osseynov Wade
Patrick Bellegard-Smith
Odalís G. Pérez
Reynold Kerr
Dagoberto Tejada
Soraya Aracena
Avelino Stanley
Celsa Albert
Rafael E. Jarvis Luís
José Luis Sáez
Lipe Collado
Geo Ripley
Mateo Morrison
Delia Blanco
Roger Toumson
Elissa Lister Brugal
Melina Pappademos
Russel Rickford
Norman de Castro
Ghasmann Bissainth
Ramona Hernández

For more information on this event, please contact Kerry Stefancyk at: kstefancyk@globalfoundationdd.org

Related link:
www.tracesofthetrade.org