Home > Uncommon Sense > 126 > Workshop in Accra, Ghana

• Support the Institute
• About Us
• Conferences
• Colloquium
• Fellowships
• Online Resources
• Tucker Papers
• Prizes
• Publications
• Uncommon Sense
• WMQ
• Join us on

---

The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture will join with the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions, and Economic Enterprise to convene a two-week workshop, July 12–26, 2009, at the International Institute for Advanced Study’s headquarters in Accra, Ghana. The purpose of the seminar is to expand and deepen the connections among scholars from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Americas begun at the Omohundro Institute conference, “‘The bloody Writing is for ever torn’: Domestic and International Consequences of the First Governmental Efforts to Abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade,” that took place in August 2007, at Accra and Elmina. The workshop is sponsored by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, and the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions, and Economic Enterprise. Information and application materials have been disseminated widely through appropriate Web sites and listservs. With spaces reserved for twelve scholars based in sub-Saharan Africa and eight located in other parts of the world, the workshop invited advanced graduate students and faculty working on any aspect of the theme “Africa, Europe, and the Americas, 1500– 1700” to apply by the submission deadline of December 27, 2008.

Professor Irene K. Odotei of the University of Ghana and Professor Joseph C. Miller of the University of Virginia will lead the workshop, which will consist of twice-daily discussions of a wide range of current scholarship, based on materials to be circulated and considered in advance by all workshop participants. The final list of readings will be selected by Professors Odotei and Miller based on the interests of the workshop participants, and it is expected that the dialogue between African and Atlantic scholarship will enrich both sides in equal measure.

The first week will be devoted to readings and discussions along two tracks: (1) regional perspectives on the Atlantic from Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Europe, and (2) African regions’ particular histories and cultures. The aim is to acquaint non-Africanist Atlanticists with African regional components of the field, including an emphasis on local sources and issues unfamiliar to nonspecialists, and to allow Africa-based scholars to embed their regionally oriented scholarship in broader Atlantic contexts. In the workshop’s second week, participants will discuss the ongoing research projects presented by their workshop colleagues, within the framework of issues developed during the preceding week of readings.

The organizers and sponsors look forward to informed and substantive discussions and lively exchanges. Questions about the workshop may be directed to Ted Maris-Wolf, Coordinator, at 757-645-6356 or edmari@wm.edu.