Florida State University's Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies will welcome some of the 21st century's most prominent voices for a two-day virtual symposium examining Africa's past and present global interconnections, Thursday, Nov. 11, and Friday, Nov. 12.
"Gender, Representation and the Maghreb" explores the relationship between gender and representation in the northwestern portion of Africa that includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and a large portion of the Sahara Desert. The Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and the FSU Middle East Center are co-sponsors of the event.
This event, the second iteration in the Global Africas series, includes virtual discussions and a roundtable that promotes a greater understanding of the richness and diversity of the French-speaking world. Participants will delve into the ways women from North Africa mobilize film, music and art to express themselves and to comment on and change the sociopolitical reality of contemporary life in this region.
Attendees will investigate these concepts through the work of three women from different fields: Tunisian filmmaker Raja Amari; Houda Abouz, also known as Moroccan rapper Khtek; and Moroccan artist Merieme Mesfioui.
"Through the streaming of two of Raja Amari's films, conversations with each invited speaker, and a roundtable, this symposium also seeks to explore the global dimension and resonances of these women and their political and artistic work," said Michelle Bumatay, series organizer and assistant professor of French at FSU.
The Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies' Global Africas series works against the ubiquitous tendency to reduce Earth's second-largest continent to a single nation by exploring the many ways in which Africa's countries and peoples have always been globally interconnected.
The series examines the cultural, linguistic, political and historical realities of Francophone regions of Africa from a range of academic and artistic perspectives.
The events are free and open to the public, but advance registration is required via Eventbrite
