The Crisis of Diversity within the Multiversity: Rethinking African and Africana Studies at the University of California

Rachel Jean Baptiste
History
UC Davis

Anneeth Kaur Kaur Hundle
Anthropology
UC Merced

This working group brought together humanists and scholars of humanistic social sciences and the law in Africa from seven UC campuses to analyze how contemporary research in African and Africana Studies informs larger possibilities for the internationalization and diversification of the UC “multiversity” in the 21st century. A diverse collection of scholars gathered in two workshops to strengthen multidisciplinary dialogue about the past, present, and future of pan-African intellectual knowledge production. The theme for the first workshop, “Reimagining Geographies of Africa,” centered on the fluidity of spatial and cultural borders responsible for informing the long history how people of African descent have traversed the continent and the globe. The theme of workshop two, “Reconceptualizing Culture, Citizenship, and Consumption,” bridged the barriers between humanistic theory and social scientific analysis. The working group facilitated more expansive research and publication collaborations by exploring new possibilities of public-private partnerships and funding.