Griot Newsletter: August 3, 2026

Dear Griot Colleagues, Family and Friends,

Dear Griot Friends, Family, and Colleagues,

We hope the slow pace of summer has given each of you space to rest, think, create, and find some measure of stillness. We recently learned some sad news: a dear friend, colleague, esteemed philosophy professor, and Bucknell alum, Frank Kirkland, passed away in May.

In the 2026-27 academic year, the Griot Institute will offer the community opportunities to explore the theme of Pan-Africanism: Global Freedom Movements and Unrealized Promises. We would like to dedicate this year to the late Professor Kirkland, as the theme is very much in line with his work and academic passion.  At the time of his death, Kirkland was completing a manuscript, Hegel’s Idealism and the Black Atlantic Form of Life. “In his writing, he examined themes such as moral argumentation, racial justice, and the philosophical foundations of self-determination, engaging critically with thinkers including Kant and Hegel.” During the spring 2026 semester, there had been hope that Professor Kirkland would be well enough by spring 2027 to join us in this conversation. We hope many of you will join us in thinking through this ever-important topic in Black lives and cultures across the globe. Our graphic this year is drawn from W.E.B. Dubois’s scholarship, The Georgia Negro, a statistical study of migration, employment, home ownership and more for Black individuals, particularly in the wake of slavery and piecemeal emancipation. Artist William Villalongo, in collaboration with urbanist Shraddha Ramani, created Printing Black America: Du Bois’s Data Portraits in the 21st Century, Portfolio 1: First Impressions (2025) purchased by the Samek in 2026 on the advice of Bucknell students. We hope the images create additional conversations on our theme Pan-Africanism: Global Freedom Movements and Unrealized Promises.

Your first opportunity to join us is Saturday, August 29, when Soul in Motion will kick off the conversation through storytelling in drums, dance, and cloth performance.

In September, we will continue the conversation with a book group over lunch on September 16 to discuss Howard French’s newest book, The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide (Liveright, 2025). Professor French, who teaches at Columbia University and writes regularly for several publications, will be on campus for a public lecture on Wednesday, September 30, from 4:30-6:00.

In October, we will host a book launch for Bucknell Spanish professor Hiram Smith and sponsor a Dancing Mind Challenge on October 24-25. Please feel free to incorporate the Dancing Mind Challenge into your course syllabi if you’re teaching this fall. The premise is based on a Toni Morrison essay, “The Dancing Mind,” and asks participants to spend a substantial portion of that weekend disconnected from digital and wired technologies. Instead, participants read paper copies of books, essays, music lyrics and notes, and articles in any genre–or, alternatively, use pen and paper to write new content that future generations might read.

The remainder of the series’ events will take place in February and March. For those who like to plan and would like to include any of our speakers in your own schedules, that information is listed below. Please reach out if you’d like to invite one of the speakers to a course you’re teaching, or if you’d like more information so that you or your students can connect with a speaker through one of their public events.

Dr. Baba Badji, Griot Institute Spring Series
Wednesday, February 10 @ 4:30 pm
Hildreth-Mirza Great Room
Senegalese American poet, translator, and Assistant Professor of Global French and Francophone Studies and Creative Writing, Rutgers University
Talk Title: Imagining the African Diaspora: A Shared Project of Négritude  and Pan-Africanism Today
Bio Link 
https://globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/baba_badji 

Dr. Quito Swan, Griot Institute Spring Series
Wednesday, February 17 @ 4:30 pm
Author, Scholar of Black Internationalism and Professor of Africana Studies and History, The George Washington University
Talk Title: One Ocean, One Blood: Oceania and the Black Radical Tradition
Bio Link – TBA
https://history.columbian.gwu.edu/quito-swan 

Professor Imani Owens, Griot Institute Spring Series
Wednesday, February 24 @ 4:30 pm
Author, Professor of African American and Caribbean literature, music, and performance, Rutgers University
Talk Title: Insurgent Choreography: Black Culture at the Crossroads of Empire
https://english.rutgers.edu/people/faculty-profiles/profile/6572-owens-imani.html 

Dr. Madina Thiam, Griot Institute Spring Series
Wednesday, March 3 @ 4:30 pm
Historian, Professor of History and Africana Studies, John Hopkins University
Talk Title: TBA
https://www.madinathiam.com/ 

Dr. Rachel Afi Quinn, Griot Institute Spring Series
Wednesday, March 17 @ 4:30 pm
Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Comparative Studies and the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, University of Houston 
Talk Title: Negative Exposure: Journalist and Pianist Philippa Schuyler’s Conservative Mixed Race Blackness Abroad
https://rachelafi.art/ 

Kind Regards,
Cymone Fourshey, Professor of History and International Relations
Director of The Griot Institute