“What We Stand to Lose” is the title of a book by anti-racism author and activist Kristen Buras. It is also the title of a conference on Thursday, March 5, at Columbia University. Both Buras’s book and the conference, sponsored by the Association for the Study of Worldwide African Diaspora in association with the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS), are concerned about similar potential losses, particularly the erasure of Black Studies.
A central theme in Buras’ book is the closure of a high school in New Orleans; according to the conference planners, Black Studies is under fire, and they offer examples of that with the recent dismantling of the African and African Diaspora Studies department at the University of Texas at Austin, home of the first Black Studies Ph.D. program in the American South.
The panelists include Edmund T. Gordon, founder and former chair of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas; Andrea J. Queeley, associate professor of anthropology at Florida International University; Ashante M. Reese, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and Michael Brandon McCormack, chair of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville.
Depending on when you read this, you may not be able to attend the event from 7-9 p.m., but you can register for the webinar online at IRAAS. What we stand to lose may be the main topic, but they will be hard-pressed not to deal with what we have already lost.