The University of Hartford Humanities Lecture Series for Spring 2024, focusing on the theme “Fiction, Fabulation, Futurity,” continues on Monday, March 4, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., in Hillyer Hall 229.
The fifth talk in the series, “Writing into the Future with African Scripts,” will be given by Amanda Carlson, Humanities Center faculty fellow and associate professor of art history (HAS). Her lecture will examine films (such as Black Panther), artworks (such as Wilfred Upkong’s installations), and novels (such as those by Nnewi Okorafor) that incorporate nsibidi, an indigenous African writing system rooted in the Cross River region of West Africa, within broader intellectual movements from Afro-futurism to African Futurism. Here, she will explore how these bodies of work become part of a dialogue about blackness, gender, and the space of Africa and the diaspora. Furthermore, she will speak to why nsibidi offers such a powerful iconography for imagining a future where African knowledge is critically important.
The Humanities Center Lecture series is developed and led by Rashmi Viswanathan, assistant professor of art history. For more information, contact Nicholas Ealy, director of the Humanities Center (ealy@hartford.edu), visit our website, or follow us on Facebook.