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College to host prominent scholar noted for work on the African Diaspora and its impact on history

Since 1960, the Department of History has brought distinguished scholars to campus to deliver the Henry Wells Lawrence Memorial Lecture, established in honor of the professor who chaired the department from 1920 to 1942. This year, the series hosts Michael A. Gomez, professor of history, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University.

Gomez is the author of several influential books and the founder and first director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora. He is also the president of the International Scientific Committee of the Slave Route Project under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He will deliver "Rightly Dividing the America-Africa Nexus: Challenges Facing a Challenged Scholarship" on Thursday, Sept. 29.

"Michael Gomez is an eminent Latino scholar and an internationally recognized expert on the African Diaspora," said Leo Garofalo, associate professor of history and a fellow in Connecticut College' Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, which is providing support for the lecture.

"The talk aims to bridge the geographical divides that often limit scholarship; this effort mirrors the work of the history department to move away from geographical divisions in our teaching and within the major in order to link regions and time periods," explained Garofalo.

"It also supports the work of the College's International Commons to internationalize the curriculum and the work of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity to historicize the construction of racial thinking and the economic, political and cultural systems that sustain it." The talk will take place at 4:15 p.m. in the Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room in Shain Library.



September 26, 2011