ESA Conference


Breakin’ BLACK Reachin’ Back

 

Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30
(virtual)

ABOUT THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE

Breakin’ BLACK Reachin’ Back is an experiential conversation engaging with Black intellectual, political, and creative concepts through the primary disciplinary nodes of Black studies, Hip Hop, and DJ scholarship.

This virtual two-day gathering centers practitioners as theorists celebrating the agency of listening, breathing, being, moving, making, and saying that has always envisioned and enabled Black existence far beyond colonial interference calling us together innovate, re/connect, and playback ideas and understanding as we r/evolve and remix.

Offerings will feature roundtable panel conversations, keynote presentations including musical and dance performances followed by discussion/Q&A, and breakout sessions for related scholarly papers. All sessions will be open to the public.

For more information, visit the official conference website.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

We invite proposals for innovative presentations including scholarly papers, personal narratives, panel discussions, and DJ/lyricist/dance performances, that engage with but are not limited to the following areas of study:

  • Black & Africana studies
  • Sound studies
  • Archival studies
  • Graffiti & aerosol arts
  • Black geographies
  • Hip Hop pedagogy
  • DJ scholarship
  • Queer studies
  • Performance studies
  • Dance & movement studies
  • Critical theories
  • Disability studies
  • Affect studies
  • Black poetics & rhetoric
  • Technology & digital humanities
  • Black time studies
  • Global & diasporic communities
  • Aesthetics & design
  • Black madness studies
  • Gender & sexuality studies

Those interested in proposing a presentation should submit abstracts, brief biographies, and contact information using the form available on the conference website.

Proposals are due February 19, 2022. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the conference organizers at breakinblackreachinback@gmail.com.

Conference organizers

Janelle Poe
Meli Kimathi
Dr. Vanessa Hein
Dasharah Green
Jeff Voss


PAST CONFERENCES

2018 Conference: Breaking Through: Textures and Aesthetics of Rupture

2019 conference: Black Lives

2020 conference: Disability is Not a Metaphor: Access and Accessibility

2021 conference: The End Times: Approaches to the Apocalypse