Rethinking the Afropolitan: The Ethics of Black Atlantic Masculinities on Display
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
Friday, October 20th and Saturday October 21st, 2017
Conveners:
Rosa Carrasquillo, College of the Holy Cross (rcarrasq@holycross.edu)
Lorelle Semley, College of the Holy Cross (lsemley@holycross.edu)
A 21st century term, “Afropolitan,” already is charged with contested meanings. Celebrated by some as the pinnacle of African modernities, others see the Afropolitan as a glorified consumer or perennial object of Western consumption. However, most discussions of Afropolitans have occurred in relation to the arts, literature, and fashion and almost exclusively in relation to Africans in Western cities or Westernized enclaves in Africa in the present. A historicized approach to the concept of the Afropolitan raises new questions about how scholars and activists read race, gender, identity, and ethics in images and texts.
