African Studies Program to Host Regional Seminar in African Studies

The College of Charleston African Studies Program will host the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS) October 24-25, 2014 in multiple on-campus locations. The conference’s theme is “Beyond Conflict.” All events are free and open to the public.

RELATED: Learn more about the African Studies Program

October 24 at 3 p.m., a lecture by Adam Branch and Zach Mampilly, coauthors of Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change, will take place in Robert Scott Small (175 Calhoun St.) room 235. The lecture is hosted by the College’s First Year Experience program.

At 6 p.m. the same day, SERSAS, in collaboration with the Park Circle Film Society, will show a screening of Half of a Yellow Sun in the Thaddeus Street Jr. Education Center (25 St. Philip St.) room 118.

“Half of a Yellow Sun, which is based on a novel of the same name, was initially banned from being released in Nigeria due to concerns that it would reignite ethnic tensions,” English professor and event organizer Simon Lewis said. “When it was finally released there, however, the film was a huge hit because it tells such an important story about the Biafran War.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, received a MacArthur Foundation award in 2008 for her work. She later wrote Americanah, which became a New York Times bestseller in 2014.

Events taking place October 25 will include the following lectures and presentations:

Maritime Material Culture as a Symbol of Conflict and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa at 8:30 a.m. in Robert Scott Small room 250.

Conflict, Identity and Borders in East Africa at 10:15 a.m. in Robert Scott Small room 250.

A reprise of Branch and Mampilly’s lecture on their book Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change at noon in Robert Scott Small room 249.

Conflict, Violence and Politics in West Africa at 2 p.m. in Robert Scott Small room 250.

Conflict, Repression and the Art of Resilience in Anglophile Cameroon Literature at 4 p.m. in Robert Scott Small room 250.