The bifurcated treatment of the continent between two separate geographical domains, in different fields of study and politics, has deepened the divide between Africans on both sides of the imaginary Saharan border, as it betrays the historical connections which tie these regions. This gathering allows scholars to reimagine an African identity beyond essentialism and ethnocentrism while offering methodological approaches to remedy this intra-continental split along racial, ethnic, and religious lines.
The aim of this gathering is to reflect together on how scholars and students from the continent and the African diaspora think about Africa and the North African narrative in the continent.

Agenda

9:00 am – 10 am: Welcome and Opening Remarks by hosts: Dr. May Kosba and Dr. Mounia Mnouer

Session #1: 10 am – 12 pm

10:00 am – 10:20 am: Khaled Esseissah, The Racial and Cultural Construction of Blackness and Whiteness in the Nineteenth-Century Sahara (now Mauritania)

10:20 am – 10:40 am: Brahim El Guabli, Africa in Tamazghan Imagination: A Reconfigured Africa Beyond the Colonial Legacies

10:40 am – 11:00 am: Fazia Aitel, The Question of Amazigh Feminism in Algeria

11:00 am – 11:20 am: Menna Agha, Blackness, Borders, and Cultural Serfdom

11:20 am – 12 p.m. Q&A for morning session
Moderated by Dr. Mounia Mnouer (Near Eastern Studies) and Dr. Ayah Noureddine (African American Studies)

Lunch Break: [30 min]

Session #2: 12:30 pm – 2 pm

12:30 pm – 12:50 pm: Robert Beshara, The [Egyptian] People’s Contempt for Their [Mother] Tongue or: How Authority Breaks Them

12:50 pm – 1:10 pm: Moad Musbahi, Voices Across the Border; Mali, Algeria, and the Right to Return

1:10 pm – 1:30 pm: Huda Mzioudet, Yearning for Recognition: Stambeli Ritual’s Resistance Mobilization in Fostering Black Tunisian Identity

1:30pm – 2:00 pm: Q&A for afternoon session
Moderated by Dr. May Kosba (Program in African Studies and Dr. Alírio Karina (Program in African Studies)

Tea/ Coffee Break [25 minutes]

Session #3: 2:30pm – 4:30 pm:

2:30 pm – 3:15 pm: Roundtable Discussion: Re-imagining an African Unity. Led by Princeton University students: Lina Lyssia Abtouche, Fatima Diallo, Raafa El Sheikh, Rahma El Sheikh.

3:20 pm - 3:40 pm: Poetry by Raafa Elsheikh

3:40 pm - 4:00 pm: Q and A

4:00 pm- 4:30 pm: Concluding Remarks by hosts: Dr. May Kosba and Dr. Mounia Mnouer

4:30 pm- 5:00 pm: Interact and Mingle
5 p.m. Adjournment