Speaker Series Videos
October 25, 2021
ISITA's 2021 online speaker series, "ISITA Dialogues," showcased new books and innovative research about Islam and Africa. Videos of the talks are available to watch on ISITA’s YouTube Channel. Most of the speakers also wrote blog posts for the Program of African Studies blog to introduce and contextualize their talks.
- “Africanization: The Bridge to Edward Blyden's Final Intellectual Transformation,”
a talk by Harry Nii Koney Odamtten (history, Santa Clara University) given on February 24, 2021.
Watch the video here. Read Odamtten's blog post here. - "Black Literary Islam in the Caribbean: Autobiographical Writings of Enslaved Sufi West Africans in 19th Century Jamaica, and Sufi Poetry in Guyana," a talk by Aliyah Khan (English/Afroamerican/African Studies, University of Michigan) given on March 10, 2021.
Watch the video here. Read Khan's blog post here. - "The Khōjā of Tanzania: Discontinuities of a Postcolonial Religious Identity," a talk by Iqbal Akhtar (politics/religious studies, Florida International University) given on April 7, 2021. Watch the video here. Read Akhtar's blog post here.
- Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel: Local Politics and Rebel Groups," a talk by Alexander Thurston (political science, University of Cincinnati) given on April 21, 2021.
Watch the video here. Read Thurston's blog post here. - "Ajami Archives of Muslim Africa: Their Significance in African Studies," a talk by Fallou Ngom (anthropology, Boston University) given on May 5, 2021.
Watch the video here. - "Mosques, Culture Clubs, and Embodied Ritual Debates: Re-making Islam in a New African Diaspora," a talk by Michelle Johnson (anthropology, Bucknell University) given on May 19, 2021.
Watch the video here. Read Johnson's blog post here.