April 18-19, 2013
Co-organized with the Five College African Studies Council

We are pleased to co-host Professor Michael Gomez (History, NYU), professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. Professor Gomez has served as the director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) from its inception in 2000 to 2007; and as  chair of the History departments at both NYU and Spelman College. He also served as President of UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee for the Slave Route Project from 2009 to 2011. Primarily a cultural and social historian of both Africa and its diaspora, Professor Gomez’s past books include, among others, Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora; Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu; and the award-winning, Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas. He is currently writing a book on the history of early and medieval West Africa, with a focus on imperial Songhay.   

Thursday April 18, 4:00 (Herter 601)

A lecture by Professor Gomez: “Malian Malestrom: Mayhem and Meaning in the Muslim World” (a longview perspective on Islam in Africa and the current political troubles in Mali). Please encourage your colleagues and students to join us.

Friday April 19, 2:15-4:15 (30 Boltwood in The Lord Jeffery Inn, with coffee and dessert and followed by wine & cheese reception) – RSVP required for attendance at the seminar.

WSIP Seminar featuring a presentation by Professor Gomez on “Medieval West Africa: A Gilded Age or Cage?” There will be optional background reading, which we’ll send when you RSVP.

PLEASE RSVP by TUESDAY APRIL 9 for the Friday seminar to Ruth Lahti at rlahti@english.umass.edu. We thank you in advance for honoring your RSVP or notifying us if your plans change.

These events are sponsored by the History Department, the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute, and the Middle Eastern Studies Program at UMass-Amherst, the Black Studies and History Departments at Amherst College, the School of Critical Social Inquiry at Hampshire College, the Afro American Studies Department at Smith College, the Five College Atlantic Studies Seminar, and the Five College Lecture Fund.