AfroGEEKS
Global Blackness and the Digital Public Sphere
May
19 – 21, 2005
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
All Events at Corwin Pavilion, on the UCSB campus
THURSDAY, May 19
2:00-4:00
Opening Panel
E-Rastas:
AfroGEEKS and the Afro-Latin Diaspora
Moderator: Celine Shimizu, Department of Asian-American Studies
Kenneth Wyrick "Rasta Software: Open Source Communications"
Daphine Washington "Virtual Communities and the Discourse
of Blackness in the Afro-Latin Diaspora"
Alison
Fraunhar "Ghost in the Machine: From El Monte to OrishaNet"
Ben Caldwell "Hip Hop La Habana"
4:00-6:00 Break
New
Racial Studies Lecture: Danielle Allen "Talking
to Strangers: Race and Citizenship"
UCSB Multi Cultural Center
6:30-7:30
Opening
Reception UCSB Corwin Patio
7:30-8:15
Film
Screening: The Last Angel of History
FRIDAY,
May 20
8:30-9:00
Coffee
and hospitality
9:00–9:15
Welcome:
Chancellor Henry T. Yang
9:15-10:45
Keynote:
Digitizing the Motherland #1
Moderator: Cynthia Hudley, Education Department
Guy Berger "Modernisation and Africa’s Emerging
Engagement with the Information Society"
Patrick Awuah "Ashesi University: Moving the Information
Economy Forward in Ghana, Opportunities and Challenges"
Emmanuel Njenga Njuguna "Africa’s Participation
at the World Summit on Information Society Process (WSIS)"
11:00 – 12:30
Panel:
Decolonizing Black Cyberbodies
Moderator: Chela Sandoval, Chicana/o Studies Department
Elisa Joy White "Asserting Difference: An Examination
of Modes in which the Internet is Used to Challenge Monolithic Blackness"
Michael Hanson "I'm a Brotha but sometimes I don't feel
Black: Thug-Nerds, Rap-Geeks and the Risky Black Masculine"
Mark Alleyne "'Cyberhate' and the Anti-Racist Ethic
12:30 – 1:30
Lunch
Break
1:30 – 3:00
Panel:
Emerging Cyber Nationalisms
Moderator: Inci Bilgin, UC Santa Cruz
Mélanie Knight "Cyber Trajectories of Race and
Nation: The Making of the Contemporary Black Female Entrepreneur"
Chika Anyanwu "Virtual African Citizenship and Social
Mobilisation"
Guisela LaTorre and Jorge Coelho "Decolonial Nation-Building
and Cultural Predicaments: Sao Tome et Principe in the Age of Digital
Technology"
Llynn Taylor "icAfricaGlobal Media: Developing New Media
Solutions for Africa"
3:00 – 4:30
Panel:
Rural Connectivities: Networking the African Village
Moderator: Mireille Miller-Young, Center for Black Studies
Jude Akudinobi "Over the Rainbow: Specificity, Digital
Technology, and Africa"
Michael Kimbi Joko "The African Cellular Phone Markets:
Lessons from the South African Companies Leading the Way"
Frederick Backman "Cutting the Edge: Contextualizing
and Demystifying New Media Technologies"
4:30-5:30
Keynote:
Performing Digital Blackness I
Moderator: Tim Cooley, Music
George Lewis "Living with Creative Machines: An Improvisor
Reflects"
Disklavier performance
5:30-6:30
Keynote:
Performing Digital Blackness II
Moderator: Duriel E. Harris, Center for Black Studies
Performance: Mendi + Keith Obadike "The
Sour Thunder and 4-1-9"
SATURDAY, May 21
8:30–9:00
Coffee
and hospitality
9:00-9:15
Introduction,
Dean Melvin Oliver
9:15-10:45
Keynote:
Beyond AfroFuturism
Moderator: Christopher McAuley, Black Studies
Floyd Webb "Taking IT to the Bridge: Digital Youth Cultures,
African Hip Hop Crews and Social Change"
Alondra Nelson "Theorizing Race and Technology in Visual
Culture"
Mark Dery "Beyond Afrofuturism"
10:45-11:00
Break
11:00-12:30
Panel:
Digital Art at the AfroGEEK Interface
Moderator: Dick Hebdige, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Ulysses Jenkins "The Nomadics"
Torkwase Dyson "All of Us: Finding new Conditions of
knowing in Multiples, through Penmanship and Performance"
Folake Shoga "Reflections on Technology and the Calling
Project"
12:30-1:30
Lunch Break
1:00-4:00
***AfroDicia
Live Broadcast, KPFK***
Nnamdi Moweta
1:30-3:00
Panel:
Geek Speak: Decipherin’ Digital Heiroglyphs
Moderator: Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Center for Black Studies
Ndesanjo Macha "Decolonizing the African Blogsphere:
The Case of Kiswahili"
Jarita C. Holbrook "Cultural Astronomy, Black Physicists,
and Total Solar Eclipses"
Skip Ellis "Project NEEM: Technology for Enhancement
of Distributed Meetings"
Kumi Rauf "Transparent Techknowledgy"
3:00-4:15
Panel:
Cyber-Griots/Bloggers: Globalizing Blackness in the Digital Public
Sphere
Moderator: Lisa Parks, Film Studies
Sheila Petty "(Re)Encoding Race: Black World-Sense in
Wayne Dunkley’s 'the degradation and removal of the/a black
male'”
Raiford Guins "Black Radical Entertainment Arts: It
needs to be in the Game"
Russell Stockard "The Networked Poetry of Time, Space
and Connections: Globalization, Glocalization, Community Capital and
the Online Black Diaspora"
Kevin Franklin "The Future of Our Pasts"
4:30-6:00
Keynote:
Digitizing the Motherland #2
Moderator: Anna Everett
Anne S. Walker "Women in Africa Using ICT"
Ruth Ojimbo Ochieng "Empowering Women in Situations
of armed Conflict through Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs): Isis-WICCE Approach"
Milton Aineruhanga "Promoting the Use of Information
and Communication Technologies to strengthen Ugandan Women's Organizations:
The Case of WOUGNET"
Rita Mijumbi-Epodoi "Women in Rural Uganda use ICTs
to access Information"
Closing
7:30-9:45
Conference
Dinner and Wrap Party at Rocks! Live music, dancing and great
food at one of Santa Barbara's hottest downtown clubs.
$30 Additional Fee
(Panelists attend free)
Center
for Film, Television, and New Media • Media
Ownership Conference
This
Conference is made possible by the Support and Generosity of the Following
Individuals:
Chancellor Henry Yang
Dean Melvin Oliver
Dean David Marshall
Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas
Associate Vice Chancellor Maria Herrera-Sobek
Executive Director Joe Castro
Margaret Wilkerson
Alison Bernstein
Claudine Michel
Julie Carlson
Cora Diaz
Nnamdi Moweta
Elizabeth Robinson
Ted Coe
John Kono
David Peacock
All Conference Participants
AfroGEEKS
Conference
UCSB Center for Black Studies
4603 South Hall
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3140
Ph. 805.893.3914
Fax: 805.893.7243
Email: afrogeeks@cbs.ucsb.edu