Newsletter No. 21 - The Harriet Tubman Institute

Number 21
ISSN 1916-5840
October - December 2009
New offices
New staff and exchange students
Summer and Winter Institutes
Harriet Tubman Newsletter
Caribbean Classics
British Library Endangered
Archives Programme Grants
Letter from the Director
President’s Research Merit
Award
I am excited to announce the
October 2009 move to our new
offices on the 3rd Floor of York
Lanes in this Issue. We now
have ample facilities for faculty,
graduate students, work studies, post-graduates and visiting
scholars. With 12 offices, lots
of open space for seminars and
study and the Harriet Tubman
Resource Centre (under construction) we are on the right
track of realizing our vision.
attended.
At our Open House in November
to celebrate this milestone,
friends of Tubman had the opportunity to see and hear about
the work we do. We were especially pleased and excited when
Professor Toyin Falola of the
University of Texas at Austin
accepted our invitation to give a
lecture at the Open House; a
special treat for everyone who
Highlighting the month of December was a successful Winter Institute in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. I was accompanied by
Professor Michele Johnson and
Professor David Trotman.
The Harriet Tubman Series on
the African Diaspora
Inside this issue:
Letter from the Director
1
Relocation
1
New people
2
Events
2
Research and Excellence
awards
4
Tubman Team Publications
5
Christmas at Tubman
6
In this quarter the Tubman Institute also became home to Caribbean Classics which is the
brainchild of the Caribbean
History Reading Group. Caribbean Classics seeks to showcase Caribbean history. The
first installment was on Lady
Nugent’s Journal and we look
forward to hosting many more
lively discussions.
grateful for the University’s
recognition and honored to
share the spotlight with Professor Ellen Bialystok who also
received the President’s Research Merit Award and Professor John Tsotsos who won the
President’s Research Excellence Award.
Receiving the York University
President’s Research Merit
Award was a defining moment
in my academic career. I am
Relocation
Members of the Harriet Tubman Institute
outside the York Lanes Offices entrance
The Harriet Tubman team is
very happy and proud of its new
offices in 321 York Lanes. It
was a bitter-sweet move from
Founders to York Lanes in October 2009 which was celebrated
by the hosting a special open
house and lecture on 12 November, 2009. The open house
displayed the many resources
available at the Tubman Institute, and the various research
projects underway.
The keynote lecture, titled
“Globalization of the African
Diaspora” was delivered by
leading African scholar and
historian Professor Toyin Falola,
the Frances Higginbotham Nalle
Centennial Professor in History
at the University of Texas at
Austin.
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Harriet Tubman Newsletter
Relocation continued ...
The open house ended with the
launch of the Harriet Tubman
Series on the African Diaspora.
New People:
From left to right:
Asif Mohammed
Project Manager, MCRI
Leidy Alpizar
Exchange student from
Universidade de Costa Rica in
Costa Rica.
Carlos Silva Jr.
Exchange student from
Universidade Federal da Bahia in
Brazil.
Events:
Summer Institute - Ouagadougou
This Summer Institute, held at
the University of Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, 25-31 October,
2009 focused on "Slavery and
Slave Trade: Confronting Views
between the Social Sciences
and Visual Arts."
It was organized by The Virtual
Institute of Advanced Studies
on Slavery and Treaties
(IVHEET) comprised of the following partners:
CIRESC (GDRI slavery CNRS,
France); the Regional Cluster of
Excellence "Slavery and Traf-
ficking: communities, boundaries and Identities', University
Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar, Senegal) supported by the Agence
Universitaire de la Francophonie; the European Commission
under the FP7-EURESCL project, the ANR-Suds (Paris); Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations
of African Peoples, York University, Toronto; Canada Research
Chair of Canada in Comparative
History of Memory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada and the
Social Sciences and Humanities
October 25 - 31
Research Council’s (SSHRC)
Major Collaborative Research
Initiatives (MCRI) Program,
"Slavery, Memory, Citizenship."
Number 21
Page 3
Open House Keynote Lecture
The Open House keynote lecture on November 12, 2009
was delivered by leading African
scholar and historian Professor
Toyin Falola, the Frances
Higginbotham Nalle Centennial
Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin.
In his lecture, titled
“Globalization of the African
Diaspora”, Falola examined the
impact of the global migrations
of African peoples, first under
November 12
slavery and now through voluntary migration, which is sometimes legal and sometimes
illegal.
Dr. Falola has published more
than 50 books. His most recent, a memoir titled A Mouth
Sweeter Than Salt, captures his
childhood and has received
numerous awards.
Dr. Toyin Falola
Bridging Two Oceans: Slavery in Indian and Atlantic Worlds
Iziko Slave Lodge
Carlos Liberato was among some
of the prominent academics from
across the world at the conference, “Bridging Two Oceans:
Slavery in Indian and Atlantic
Worlds.” This conference was
organized by the Wilberforce
Institute for the study of Slavery
and Emancipation, University of
Hull, UK and took place in Cape
Town, South Africa, 19-22 No-
vember, 2009.
The conference aimed to unite
the perspectives of researchers
in the histories of slavery and the
slave trade in the Atlantic and
the Indian Oceans to promote a
culture of exchange and cooperation in the innovative context of
Twin Ocean Slavery.
November 19 - 22
For more information please
contact Kate Hodgson:
[email protected] or
Judith Spicksley:
[email protected].
Caribbean Classics
The Caribbean Reading History Group
at Tubman held its first “Caribbean
Classics” on 11 December, 2009 with
a lively discussion on "Lady Nugent's
Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica
from 1801 to 1805."
For more information on this new addition to Tubman’s calendar please contact Laurie Jacklin, CHRG Co-ordinator
at [email protected].
December 11
All are welcome to Caribbean
Classics, a showcase of Caribbean history.
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Harriet Tubman Newsletter
Winter Institute - Haiti
Professors Paul E. Lovejoy,
Michele Johnson and David
Trotman attended the Winter
Institute which was hosted by
the State University of Haiti
(UEH) in Port-au-Prince, 13-20
December, 2009.
The theme of the Winter Institute was Slavery Heritage: Representing the Story in Public
Space and was a collaborative
effort among: The Interdisciplinary Virtual Institute of Advanced Studies on Slavery and
Treaties (IVHEET); Pôle d'Excel-
December 13 - 20
lence Régional AUF "slavery and
treated in the community, Borders and Identities"; Agence
Universitaire de la Francophonie; University Cheikh Anta
Diop, Senegal; Harriet Tubman
Institute for Research on the
Global Migrations of African
Peoples, York University, Toronto, Canada; and UEH
(Master Program "History, Memory and Heritage").
With both a research and educational component the Institute included workshops, con-
ferences, history days and cultural activities which were open
to students, practitioners of
museum and heritage, and
teachers.
Participants at one of the events
r-l: Ibrahima Seck, Pecard Bryon
Research and Excellence Awards:
Before the war, after the war: preserving history in Sierra Leone
In October 2009, under the
direction of Professor Paul
Lovejoy, York University, received a Pilot Project Award
from Arcadia, through the Endangered Archives Programme
for the project entitled: “Before
the war, after the war: preserving history in Sierra Leone”.
The value of the award is
£13,480 over 12 months.
The Sierra Leone Archives hold
documents which can barely be
equalled in importance for telling the Atlantic slavery story.
Foremost are the Liberated
African Letter Books, which
record the slave ships captured
by the navy patrol, list all Africans disembarked at Freetown
and indicate what became of
them. There are also treaties
between local chiefs and the
new settlement from 1788 to
October 2009
the 20th century and the 1790s
journal of John Clarkson,
brother of abolitionist Thomas
Clarkson. This project will create an inventory and digital
images of endangered documents.
For more on this project visit
http://www.bl.uk/about/
policies/
endangeredarch/2009/
lovejoy.html
Number 21
Page 5
York University President’s Research Merit Award
Paul E. Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora,
and Director of the Harriet Tubman
Institute for Research on the
Global Migrations of African Peoples received York University President’s Research Merit Award in
November 2009.
Winning the York University President’s Research Excellence Award
was Professor John Tsotsos while
Professor Ellen Bialystock was also
granted a Research Merit Award.
Lovejoy is a leading scholar who
has pioneered the study of the
history and dynamics of the African diaspora from an African perspective. Through his research, he
traces the history of migration
from Africa into diaspora, following
individual enslaved Africans to
their destinations in the Americas.
Lovejoy collaborates with an international network of researchers in
Canada, the United States, the
Caribbean, Brazil, Latin America,
Africa and Europe, creating digitized historical data for his unique
research. Lovejoy has
November 2009
“revolutionized his field through the
innovative use of technology,” according to his nominator, York political science Professor Robert Drummond. "Lovejoy is an internationally
active public intellectual in regard to
issues of contemporary slavery and
reparations.”
Professor Paul Lovejoy
As part of celebrations marking
York’s inaugural Research Month, a
ceremony to honor the recipients of
the President’s Research Excellence
Award and Research Awards of Merit
was held on November 24.
Dr. Mamdouh Shoukri, York University’s President and Professor Paul Lovejoy
Nadine Hunt, Professor Paul Lovejoy and Yacine Daddi Addoun
Tubman Team Publications:
The Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora
The Harriet Tubman Series on
the African Diaspora was
launched at the Institute’s Open
House in November 2009.
The Series explores the African
Diaspora in historical and contemporary times. The Tubman
Series examines all aspects of
the global migrations of African
peoples, whether under conditions of slavery, or more recently
as a product of the postcolonial
conditions of the global society.
The Series addresses the quest
for social justice and equitable
conditions of life in Africa and
diaspora as revealed in history,
literary studies, culture, and the
performing arts. The Series focuses on the enslavement of
Africans in the racialized colonial
context of the Americas and the
place of slavery and abolition in
November 2009
various global contexts centered on Africa, the Indian
Ocean, and the Islamic world
encompassing the regions
crossing the Sahara from the
Mediterranean to West Africa.
The Series offers a perspective
on global multiculturalism emphasizing the centrality of African peoples.
The contributions to the
Tubman Series are intended to
promote dialogue along and
across regional, religious, cultural, and political frontiers.
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Harriet Tubman Newsletter
Christmas at Tubman
December is a month to celebrate and the folks at Tubman did just that. In early December the staff organized a potluck for all
of Tubman’s friends. Subsequently, the students organized a gift exchange and pizza party. As always, the venue was the “big
red seminar table” in the Harriet Tubman Institute.
Early December
Late December
The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples at York University is proud to be part of
The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research
on the Global Migrations of African Peoples
York Lanes 353
York University
4700 Keele St
Toronto, Ontario
Phone: 1-416-736-2100 ext 33058
Fax: 1-416-650-8173
E-mail: [email protected]
an international network of research centres committed to overcoming injustice and inequity as a result of slavery. Our leading-edge
research focuses on the forced and voluntary movement of African
peoples around the world. As a social innovator, the Institute's
mandate is to promote a greater understanding of the history of
slavery and its legacy. The Institute fosters debate, informs public
policy and strives to resolve current social injustices. Digital archiving technology enables the preservation of documents and other materials for easy access to historical records. The Institute is named
www.yorku.ca/tubman
for the spirit of Harriet Tubman, liberator of her people, feminist,
and humanist (c.1820-1913).