On Sept. 27-28, Carleton hosted its first-ever undergraduate conference on Global Blackness in the 21st Century. The conference was sponsored by the Africana Studies department and the Division of Inclusion, Equity & Community (IEC). Undergraduate students from across the country were invited to present their scholarship and listen to a keynote address given by Shatema Threadcraft, a professor at Vanderbilt University, as well as enjoy a performance by Emilio Moises Alvarez Quioto, the recognized Garifuna musician from Honduras.
“Africana Studies is relatively new at Carleton,” said Chielo Eze, the Director and professor of Africana Studies. “It is important that we announce our presence to the community and our neighborhood. Most importantly, though, the world needs to know more about Carleton’s palette of good offerings.”
“Every one of us embodies diversity in their lives,” Eze said. “We are not living a monotonous existence. We understand a vibrant community in the same way that we understand our individual lives as full of options. In the context of this conference, we approach diversity as a prism through which we see the world and the world sees us. We thus encourage visible and invisible forms of diversity: diversity of opinions, beliefs, lifestyles, ethnicities, colors. We all make up what Martin Luther King, Jr. calls the beloved community.”
On Friday, staff and students from Williams College, Macalester College and St. Olaf College arrived on Carleton’s campus. The conference kicked off with a welcome lunch and Threadcraft’s keynote lecture titled “Black Femicide and Morrisonian Democracy.”
“In this lecture, I challenge Crenshaw’s assertion that such a reckoning is necessary and argue that Toni Morrison’s conception of democracy, a conception practiced by ephemeral collectives of Black women throughout history and today, is best for responding to the disproportionate violence to which Black women are subject,” Threadcraft wrote.
According to the IEC website, “Kimberlé Crenshaw argues that ‘There’s never been a moment in our society where there’s been a reckoning with the particular kinds of violence that’s meted out against Black women.’”
Later in the afternoon and evening, Quioto brought to life the traditional Garífuna music style known as “Parranda.” This performance format is traditionally played during local celebrations and visits, where musicians would go house to house. Historically accompanied by instruments like the guitar, donkey’s jawbone and conch shells, modern Parranda now incorporates bass and electric guitar, adding a contemporary note. The lyrics explored themes of daily life, love, heartbreak and other existential topics, offering a rich glimpse into the Garífuna worldview while blending tradition with modern influences.
The next morning, student speakers presented their papers. Some of the included topics were post-genocide Rwanda, art and cultural identity, Beyonce’s albums, love and rage in Black liberation movements, racial equity as lens to explore reproductive justice and more.
Julia Tassava ’26 presented her paper, “Love and Rage for Liberation: An Exploration of the Uses of Political Emotions.” In this paper, Tassava argues that emotions like love and rage can serve as powerful tools in the fight against oppression. Drawing on the works of Africana Studies scholars such as Audre Lorde, Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, Cornel West and Bell Hooks, Tassava delivered a powerful argument that emotions are essential to liberation movements and can drive meaningful social change, especially in the context of Black women’s experiences.
“Conferences like this provide important opportunities for undergraduates to share their work and learn from one another,” Tassava said. “Africana Studies is a wonderfully diverse and fascinating field that deserves much more recognition, and I think expanding and bringing more resources to the department here is a fantastic use of the College’s resources.”
“I was proud to see Carleton providing an opportunity like this to highlight exciting work being done in the field of Africana Studies and to uplift the research of students, especially Black students, here and at other institutions,” she reflected.
Peter Kenedi ’27 explored the role of art in maintaining Black Americans’ cultural identity. He challenged the perspectives of W.E.B. Du Bois and Richard Wright, who argued that the art’s purpose is to advance African American progress. Kenedi disagreed, believing that art solely supporting social movement erases the human element. “In this view, art is unsentimental,” Kenedi said. “People who have been fighting for freedom and equality might lose some of their own humanity in the battle as well.”
Kenedi drew upon his own experience of interacting with the Maori population in New Zealand as comparison: “The Maori people must fight a double battle of colonization and being reduced to a group of fighters…. When you use a kitchen knife as a dagger and bleach as poison, you forget how to be at home.”
“Art is relatable. It is funny. It is reflective. It is morose. It is confronting, and it is also healing,” Kenedi concluded.
Lillian Masinde ’26 used a racial equity lens to assess the nuances of reproductive justice and the broader history of politicization of Black reproductive bodies. She focused on how the concept of “reproductive freedom” often ignores the social barriers faced by Black individuals.
Masinde led the audience through a historical account of slavery and reproductive violence against black bodies. “Slavery depended on Black womens’ bodies to grow the labor force, and eugenics were used to justify forced sterilization and regulation of reproduction by Black women,” Masinde said. “Black women were blamed for the ‘hereditation’ of ‘social degeneracy.’ These eugenist ideologies were embedded in social policy to curb the black population.”
“For instance, Buck v. Bell (1927) legalized state-mandated sterilization of people deemed unfit to procreate—the deaf, blind, diseased, and the minorities,” Masinde said.
“Understanding reproductive justice in the contemporary means situating reproductive rights outside of the confounds of ‘choice,’ and rather in the social, economic and legal contexts that choices are made in,” Masinde concluded. “Therefore, in order to progress towards a future where reproductive rights are accessible for all, we must confront legal mechanisms and systemic barriers that prevent the latter from happening.”
Oluwatosin Ibidokun, a student from Williams College, explored the tensions between reconciliation and justice in post-genocide Rwanda’s gacaca courts.
According to the Human Rights Watch, traditional gacaca courts are local courts used to settle minor civil disputes. The post-genocide gacaca court, similar to its predecessor, is run by local judges and encourages local community members to participate. Yet, in this post-genocide context, the Rwandan government adapted the gacaca courts for a massive undertaking of community-based justice.
Ibidokun explained that the Rwandan government attempted to merge traditional and Western legal systems during the formation of post-genocide gacaca courts, but this resulted in uneven reconciliation and healing among victims of the genocide and ethnic groups. In reflection, she highlighted the importance of having both perpetrators and victims play equal parts — in contrast to the punitive norms of the Western judicial systems — to reach true reconciliation.
“As we see in the gacaca court system, it was mostly run by victims,” she said. “Victims had to make the choice of ‘I’m going to be in the same environment as the perpetrators, and I’m going to speak to them.”
“Although the gacaca court system put some people in jail and it aligned somewhat with the state narrative of punitiveness, I think it focused more on cooperation,” Ibidokun continued. “The fact that in the gacaca courts both sides tried to hear each other out, this is the beginning of reconciliation. Frankly, genocide is really hard to forgive, and it’s not anyone’s place to push for or measure forgiveness, but I’m curious of how the Tutsi and Hutu community can move forward.”
“The conference was a valuable opportunity for me as an undergraduate to experience intellectual exchange,” Ibidokun said. “So often when pursuing academic projects, the feedback I receive is limited to a grade from a professor. As a result, it was really empowering to present on a project I developed independently and share my ideas and receive feedback from students and professors alike.”
“A lot of the questions and comments I received helped me consider how to make my arguments clearer,” Ibidokun said. “It also helped me realize that nuance and ambiguities are a strength not a weakness in academic research. Furthermore, listening to others’ presentations introduced me to a range of theoretical frameworks that helped me consider how Western sources — or the lack of sources — can be strategically used to shed light on the voices of those who are marginalized.”
This article itself is far from holistic — one could not do justice to all the wonderful presenters at the conference.
“I believe that this is just the beginning of the many activities we have planned to enrich our community,” Eze said. “We also have upcoming lecture series which will allow us to bring prominent scholars to campus.”
“Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field with a diverse array of subject matters,” Masinde added. “Therefore, no matter your major or field of interest, there is something in Africana Studies for you!”
