Fellowship Details:

Dr. Adunbi will be in residence at Texas A&M during the week of September 18, 2023.

Dr. Adunbi will deliver a public lecture on September 20, 2023 at 3:00 pm in GLAS 311, entitled "'Let's Set Them Ablaze': Energy Practices, Climate Crisis, and the Social Death of the Environment in Nigeria."

In December 2021, several images appeared on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, depicting a cloudy atmosphere supposedly caused by the presence of soot in many Niger Delta communities. Soot is a particle pollution that results from burning of fossil fuels, makes the atmosphere cloudy and produces acidic rain that can cause diseases of the lungs such as aggravated asthma, acute bronchitis etc. The post created a buzz online with many commentators putting the blame on the devastating effect of many years of oil exploration in Nigeria. In this talk, Adunbi puts these online commentaries in conversation with energy practices by paying particular attention to how artisanal refineries and other special economic zones’ extractive practices in Nigeria have resulted in what he calls the social death of the environment. As Adunbi shows, for many in Nigeria, the consequences of crude oil---considered to be sweet for some and bitter for many--- have been environmental degradation and loss of livelihood.

Dr. Omolade Adunbi  | Professor, University of Michigan

Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

Department of Anthropology

Director, African Studies Center

Professor of Law (courtesy)

Faculty Associate, Program in the Environment

Fellowship Details:

Dr. Santos-Febres will be in residence at Texas A&M during the week of February 26, 2024.

"Afro-Latinx Poetry: an Invisibilized Canon"
Keynote Lecture (AfroLatinx Life & Writing Symposium)
Thursday, February 29, 2024
2:30pm in GLAS 311

For information on the Afro-Latinx Life & Writing symposium, click here.

For more details on Dr. Santos-Febres's visit, contact Dr. AJ Baginski at abaginski@tamu.edu.

Mayra Santos-Febres was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. She is an author, professor, and researcher. She studied literature at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and has a doctorate from Cornell University. She is the coordinator of the Racial and Afrodiasporic Studies Program at the University of Puerto Rico. She has won numerous international awards and recognitions. Her literary work has been translated into French, English, Italian, Romanian, Korean, Portuguese and Icelandic. She has published the poetry collections Anamú y manigua (1990), El orden escapado (1991), Boat People (1994), Tercer Mundo (2004), Lecciones de renuncia (2021) and Huracanada (2018). Her essay book Sobre piel y papel (2005). Her books of short stories include Pez de vidrio y otros cuentos, El cuerpo correcto, Un pasado posible and Mujeres violentas. And among her novels are Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2001), Cualquier miércoles soy tuya (2002), Fe en disfraz (2009), Nuestra Señora de la noche (2006), La amante de Gardel (2015), Huracana (2018) and Antes que llegue la luz (2021).

For additional information on Dr. Santos-Febres's visit, please contact Dr. AJ Baginski at abaginski@tamu.edu.

Fellowship Details:

Dr. Atkins will be in residence at Texas A&M during the week of March 4, 2024.

Dr. Atkins will deliver a public lecture on March 6.

"It's Just Like Swan Lake!" Movement and Meaning in Popular Culture

Wednesday, March 6, 2024
3:00-4:30 PM
GLAS 311

The arts emerged as a key survival ingredient in the wake of Covid’s near-global quarantine and isolating effects. Painting commentaries, street murals, memes, musical compositions, at-home theatricals, zoom videos, and viral social media challenges proliferated as commentary on—or escapism from—the virus, contributing to a feeling of aliveness and connection during iterative lockdowns. At the center of this movement was movement itself. Across online platforms, people danced their way to increased resilience, solidarity, and better times. Dance’s centrality within popular culture, and its ability to reflect, comment on, and even reshape contemporary ideas, is not new. In fact, dance is so immersed in our daily lives that it often becomes invisibilized. Join Dr. Atkins to examine US popular culture’s love affair with dance and to illuminate how popular culture wields everyday movement as a powerful tool for changing the world.

For more details on Dr. Atkins's visit, contact Dr. Jessica Herzogenrath at jrayherzogenrath@tamu.edu

Jen Atkins (she/hers) is Associate Professor of Dance at Florida State University, where she teaches dance history. Jen’s classes draw on social and concert dance forms to examine persistent historical and aesthetic debates, critically analyzing identity, systems of power, and the interrelatedness of past and present. Outside of the classroom, Jen serves on the Board of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) and works closely with PoP Moves: An International Research Group for Popular Dance. Jen’s first book, Carnival Balls in New Orleans: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920 (LSU Press, 2017) earned the Jules and Frances Landry Award for most outstanding achievement in the field of southern studies. Jen just returned from a year abroad in Norway, where she served as a 2022-23 Fulbright Roving Scholar in American Studies.

The Silk Road Ensemble at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, California, April 26, 2019.

Fellowship Details:

Watanabe will be in residence at Texas A&M during the week of March 4, 2024.

Watanabe will deliver a public performance on March 7, 2024 at 7:00 pm at Rudder Forum. This event is free & open to the public. No registration required.

For more details on Watanabe's visit, contact Dr. Martin Regan reganm@tamu.edu

Kaoru Watanabe 
Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe's work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Silkroad Ensemble, and Rhiannon Giddens. A trained jazz musician, he lived in Japan for a decade, where he became the first American to become a performer and Artistic Director of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo.