CSU Dominguez Hills Represented at National Black Studies Conference

The students of the Department of Africana Studies (AFS) recently attended the 33rd Annual National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) conference hosted by Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, Mar. 19 – 21. Each year, a group of students along with AFS advisors attend the annual conference and give a presentation based on papers they have written after conducting research.

Sherica Bolden, Aerion Brown, Kehli Faulkner, Tamanika Ferguson, Ricco Garret, Betty Knight, and Tiearea Robinson attended the conference and presented the topics “Africana Culture, Aesthetics and the Politics of Representation,” “From Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama: Revisiting Political, Social and Sacred Discourses for a New Landscape,” and “The Politics of Education and the Liberation of African People.”

M. Keith Claybrook, lecturer and Dr. Munashe Furusa, chair of Africana studies, were also in attendance and presented their work on “Education Ain’t Universal: Assessing American Public Education Impact on African American Self Perception,” and “Theorizing Hybridity Through African Literature: Bridging the Gap Between Individuality and Sociality.”

CSU Dominguez Hills students also attended panel discussions on topics including “Africa and Afrocentric Worldview,” “Explorations in the Literature of the African Diaspora,” and “African Resistance and Renaissance in the Age of Obama.”

The NCBS aims to promote academic excellence and social responsibility. The conference was established in 1975 by African Americans who understood the need to formalize the study of the African World experience, as well as concentrating on the enhancement and strengthening of academic units and community programs devoted to that endeavor.

Robinson, a junior majoring in Africana studies and psychology, enjoyed the conference.

“It was an amazing experience,” she says. “I was honored to go and I look forward to attending next year’s conference.”

- Amber Lewis, College of Arts & Humanities Representative, Associated Students Incorporated
Class of 2009, English/Communications